Recovered From Olive Trees () in Turkey Reveal Allopatry With African and South American Lineages.

species are life-threatening human fungal pathogens that cause cryptococcal meningoencephalitis in both immunocompromised and healthy hosts. The natural environmental niches of include pigeon () guano, soil, and a variety of tree species such as , and spp. Genetic and genomic studies of extensive sample collections have provided insights into the population distribution and composition of different species in geographic regions around the world. However, few such studies examined in Turkey. We sampled 388 (olive) and 132 . trees from seven locations in coastal and inland areas of the Aegean region of Anatolian Turkey in September 2016 to investigate the distribution and genetic diversity present in the natural population. We isolated 84 strains (83 α and 1 ) and 3 strains (all α) from 87 (22.4% of surveyed) . trees; a total of 32 . strains were isolated from 32 (24.2%) of the . trees, all of which were α. A statistically significant difference was observed in the frequency of . isolation between coastal and inland areas (