ABSTRACT       

Cryptococcus neoformans is a yeast-like fungal cell that is spherical, encapsulated, and non-fermenting. It is pathogenic to humans and animals. C.neoformans primarily causes fatal meningitis in immunocompromised people. C. neoformans produces melanin as the second specialized virulence factor in response to nutritional and host signals. Melanin is a pigment found in the cell wall that protects the cell from oxidative and nitrosative stress caused by the host immune system, as well as other stresses.. Cryptococcus neoformans strains were isolated from environmental sources taken from two different locations. Isolates that grew at 37°C after 48 hours of incubation were chosen for confirmation, first on Urease medium and then on Niger seed agar which allowed the formation of melanin (brown pigment) to identify Cryptococcus neoformans isolates.. Environmental melanin producing isolates from New Benin market and non-melanin producing isolates from Uselu market were selected for the purpose of research. Both isolates were crossed on V8 agar medium to investigate the inheritance of melanin, one of the virulence factors in Cryptococcus neoformans. Cryptococcus neoformans was shown to display evidence of segregation. The production of pigmentation also showed variant which were not present in the original isolate. This could be as a result of sexual recombination thus suggesting that melanin inheritance is not under a dominant control. This variability shown by the resulting isolate can serve as a possible instrument for further study of the genetics of C. neoformans.