Transformation systems in fungi have generally relied on nutritional auxotrophic markers for the selection of transformants. However, the use of endogenous promoters has allowed the efficient expression of a heterologous reporter gene such as hygromycin B as a positive selection markers in several fungi. In Cryptococcus neoformans, efforts to express such heterologous genes, even with certain endogenous promoters, have met with limited success since it has been achieved primarily in only one of the four serotypes. The use of a strong endogenous promoter to express signals for heterologous genes in C. neoformans, regardless of serotype is needed. To achieve this purpose, the glyceraldehyde- 3-phospate dehydrogenase (GPD) gene was cloned from C. neoformans. The GPD is a key glycolytic enzyme which is highly and constitutively expressed in yeast and accounts for 2-5% of the mRNA and 5% of the cellular protein. In the previous year, we have cloned GPD gene from a library of a serotype D reference strain (B-3501). This year we have characterized the GPD gene and compared it to GPD genes of other fungi. Its promoter region was identified and used to construct plasmids to express both a native gene (URA5) and a heterologous gene (Hph-1).