Cryptococcus

Cryptococcus
Yeast state of Cryptococcus neoformans
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Basidiomycota
Class:	Tremellomycetes
Order:	Tremellales
Family:	Cryptococcaceae
Genus:	Cryptococcus Vuill. (1901)
Type species
Cryptococcus neoformans
Species
Cryptococcus amylolentus C. bacillisporus C. decagattii C. deneoformans C. depauperatus C. deuterogattii C. gattii C. luteus C. tetragattii
Synonyms
Filobasidiella Kwon-Chung (1975) Tsuchiyaea Y. Yamada, H. Kawas., Itoh, I. Banno & Nakase (1988)

Cryptococcus is a genus of fungi in the family Cryptococcaceae that includes both yeasts and filamentous species. The filamentous, sexual forms or teleomorphs were formerly classified in the genus Filobasidiella, while Cryptococcus was reserved for the yeasts. Most yeast species formerly referred to Cryptococcus have now been placed in different genera. The name Cryptococcus comes from the Greek for "hidden sphere" (literally "hidden berry"). Some Cryptococcus species cause a disease called cryptococcosis.