The polyphasic re-identification of a Brazilian Aspergillus section Terrei collection led to the discovery of two new species

Species belonging toAspergillussectionTerreihave a worldwide distribution and are phenotypically similar. Most species grow either moderately or fast on agar media, and their conidial colors are often in shades of cinnamon brown. In the present study, 79 sectionTerreistrains stored at the University Recife Mycologia (URM) Culture Collection (MicotecaURM) in Brazil were re-identified using a polyphasic approach, combining partial beta-tubulin (BenA) and calmodulin (CaM) gene sequences and morphological data. Seven known (A. terreus,A. pseudoterreus,A. alabamensis,A. citrinoterreus,A. hortai,A. neoafricanus, andA. niveus) and two new species,A. barbosaeandA. recifensis, were present among the studied strains. The new species were described based on internal transcribed spacer (ITS),BenA,CaM, and RNA polymerase II second largest subunit (RPB2) sequences in combination with morphological features and extrolite profiles; the most important characteristics for distinguishing the new from the accepted sectionTerreispecies are given.Aspergillus recifensisproduces the mycotoxin citreoviridin andA. barbosaecitrinin.