-Mediated Transformation of and for Host-Environment Interaction Studies.

The fungal genus contains etiological agents of human chromoblastomycosis, a (sub)tropical, (sub)cutaneous implantation disease caused by plant contact. The invasive potential differs significantly between species. Infections by are believed to originate from the environment and the species has been reported as one of the main causative agents of the disease, but also of cases of primary brain infection. The epidemiology of the disease has not been fully elucidated and questions related to its infection route and virulence are still to be clarified. The environmental species was isolated from organic material and living plants in endemic areas for chromoblastomycosis in Brazil. The present paper describes -mediated transformation (AMT) of the environmental species and the pathogenic species . We propose the use of transformation for future gene function studies related to virulence and pathogenicity. We evaluated the co-cultivation ratios 1:1, 10:1 and 100:1 (:conidia) at 28 °C during 72 h. pAD1625 and pCAMDsRed plasmids were inserted into both species. Confirmation of transformation was realized by gene amplification and Southern blot determined the amount of foreign DNA integrated into the genome. In order to evaluate a potential link between environmental and clinical strains, we obtained red fluorescent transformants after pCAMDsRed insertion. We observed by confocal fluorescence microscopy that both and were able to colonize the palm , penetrating the epidermis. These results contribute to understanding the ability of species to adapt to different environmental and host conditions.