available online at www.studiesinmycology.org STUDIE S IN MYCOLOGY 59: 89–106. 2007. doi:10.3114/sim.2007.59.11 Taxonomic revision of Aspergillus section Clavati based on molecular, morphological and physiological data J. Varga1,3, M. Due2, J.C. Frisvad2 and R.A. Samson1 1CBS Fungal Biodiversity Centre, Uppsalalaan 8, NL-3584 CT Utrecht, The Netherlands; 2BioCentrum-DTU, Building 221, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark; 3Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science and Informatics, University of Szeged, H-6701 Szeged, P.O. Box 533, Hungary *Correspondence: János Varga,
[email protected] Abstract: Aspergillus section Clavati has been revised using morphology, secondary metabolites, physiological characters and DNA sequences. Phylogenetic analysis of β-tubulin, ITS and calmodulin sequence data indicated that Aspergillus section Clavati includes 6 species, A. clavatus (synonyms: A. apicalis, A. pallidus), A. giganteus, A. rhizopodus, A. longivesica, Neocarpenteles acanthosporus and A. clavatonanicus. Neocarpenteles acanthosporus is the only known teleomorph of this section. The sister genera to Neocarpenteles are Neosartorya and Dichotomomyces based on sequence data. Species in Neosartorya and Neocarpenteles have anamorphs with green conidia and share the production of tryptoquivalins, while Dichotomomyces was found to be able to produce gliotoxin, which is also produced by some Neosartorya species, and tryptoquivalines and tryptoquivalones produced by members of both section Clavati and Fumigati. All species in section Clavati are alkalitolerant and acidotolerant and they all have clavate conidial heads. Many species are coprophilic and produce the effective antibiotic patulin. Members of section Clavati also produce antafumicin, tryptoquivalines, cytochalasins, sarcins, dehydrocarolic acid and kotanins (orlandin, desmethylkotanin and kotanin) in species specific combinations.