Correspondence

Journal of Medical & Veterinary Mycology 1996, 34, 367 Accepted I I March 1996 Correspondence No AluI site at position 940-943 of cryptococcal 18S rDNA Sir, According to published sequence data [1], an Alul @ 1996 ISHAM Hygiene Institute University of Heidelberg, Germany *Correspondence: Hygiene-Institut, Im Neuenheimer Feld 324, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany R. KAPPE* S. ZAKIKHANI C. N. OKEKE M. MAIWALD References 1 Van de Peer Y, Hendriks L, Goris A, et al. Evolution of basidiomycetous yeasts as deduced from small ribosomal subunit RNA sequences. Syst Appl Microbiol 1992; 15:250 8. 2 Maiwald M, Kappe R, Sonntag H-G. Rapid presumptive identification of medically relevant yeasts to the species level by polymerase chain reaction and restriction enzyme analysis. J Med Vet Mycol 1994; 32: 115-22. 3 Fan M, Currie BP, Gutell RR, Ragan MA, Casadevall A. The 16S-like, 5.8S and 23Sqike rRNAS of the two varieties of Cryptococcus neojormans: sequence, secondary structure, phylogenetic analysis and restriction fragment polymorphisms. J Med Vet Mycol 1994; 32:163 80. restriction site ( A G ' C T ) was expected at position 940-943 of the 18S r D N A of Cryptoeoccus neoJormans (counting according to Saccharomyces cerevisiae, E M B L accession no. JO1353), and a yeast identification system was accordingly designed [2]. However, AluI failed to cut at this predicted position. As only one strain was examined at that time, the failure to cut was attributed to either (i) an error in the published sequence, or (ii) a strain specificity [2]. We now examined eight strains of C. neojormans and one strain of C. uniguttulatus. Partial length 18S r D N A of all o f them was not cut by AluI at position 940 943, whereas the D N A o f Candida keJyr as a control was cut as expected. Thus it appears, that the originally published sequence of cryptococcal 18S rDNA [1] (EMBL accession number X60183) is missing an 'A' at position 943, which led to the false selection of the restriction enzyme AluI[2]. This has been confirmed by more recent sequence data [3] (EMBL accession numbers L05428 and L05427), and it has been corrected in the small ribosomal subunit R N A database available via internet server URL:http://www.rrna.uia.ac.be/.  (...truncated)