Research

Phylogeny, identification and nomenclature of the genus Aspergillus

Abstract

Aspergillus comprises a diverse group of species based on morphological, physiological and phylogenetic characters, which significantly impact biotechnology, food production, indoor environments and human health. Aspergillus was traditionally associated with nine teleomorph genera, but phylogenetic data suggest that together with genera such as Polypaecilum, Phialosimplex, Dichotomomyces and Cristaspora, Aspergillus forms a monophyletic clade closely related to Penicillium. Changes in the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants resulted in the move to one name per species, meaning that a decision had to be made whether to keep Aspergillus as one big genus or to split it into several smaller genera. The International Commission of Penicillium and Aspergillus decided to keep Aspergillus instead of using smaller genera. In this paper, we present the arguments for this decision. We introduce new combinations for accepted species presently lacking an Aspergillus name and provide an updated accepted species list for the genus, now containing 339 species. To add to the scientific value of the list, we include information about living ex-type culture collection numbers and GenBank accession numbers for available representative ITS, calmodulin, β-tubulin and RPB2 sequences. In addition, we recommend a standard working technique for Aspergillus and propose calmodulin as a secondary identification marker.

Aspergillus arxii (Fort & Guarro) Houbraken Visagie & Samson Aspergillus assulatus (S.B. Hong Frisvad & Samson) Houbraken Visagie & Samson Aspergillus astellatus (Fennell & Raper) Houbraken Visagie & Samson Aspergillus australensis (Samson S.B. Hong & Varga) Houbraken Visagie & Samson Aspergillus caninus (Sigler Deanna A. Sutton Gibas Summerb. & Iwen) Houbraken Tanney Visagie & Samson Aspergillus capsici (J.F.H. Beyma) Houbraken Visagie & Samson Aspergillus cejpii (Milko) Samson Varga Visagie & Houbraken Aspergillus chlamydosporus (Gené & Guarro) Houbraken Tanney Visagie & Samson Aspergillus denticulatus (Samson S.B. Hong & Frisvad) Samson S.B. Hong Visagie & Houbraken Aspergillus desertorum (Samson & Mouch.) Samson Visagie & Houbraken Aspergillus ferenczii (Varga & Samson) Samson Varga Visagie & Houbraken Aspergillus galapagensis (Frisvad S.B. Hong & Samson) Samson Frisvad & Houbraken Aspergillus inflatus (Stolk & Malla) Samson Frisvad Varga Visagie & Houbraken Aspergillus insolitus (G. Sm.) Houbraken Visagie & Samson Aspergillus papuensis (Samson S.B. Hong & Varga) Samson S.B. Hong & Varga Aspergillus pisci (A.D. Hocking & Pitt) Houbraken Visagie & Samson Aspergillus pluriseminatus (Stchigel & Guarro) Samson Visagie & Houbraken Aspergillus sclerotialis (W. Gams & Breton) Houbraken Tanney Visagie & Samson Aspergillus shendaweii (Yaguchi Abliz & Y. Horie) Samson Visagie & Houbraken Aspergillus similis (Y. Horie Udagawa Abdullah & Al-Bader) Samson Visagie & Houbraken Aspergillus tsunodae (Yaguchi Abliz & Y. Horie) Samson Visagie & Houbraken
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Journal Article, 2014

UN SDG Classification
DK Main Research Area

    Science/Technology

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