Penicillium dravuni, a new marine-derived species from an alga in Fiji

Penicillium dravuni is a new monoverticillate, sclerotium-forming species that was isolated from the alga Diclyosphaeria versluyii collected in Dravuni, Fiji. This species morphologically is similar to P. turbatum in the P turbatum subseries of the P thomii series of the Monoverticillata. The nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer region exhibited 97% sequence similarity to known Penicillium spp. in the GenBank database. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that P dravuni is related most closely to Eu-penicillium brefeldianum, E. levitum, E. reticulosporum, E. javanicum, E. ehrlichii and P simplicissimum. However this new species shares only a distant ancestor with this clade because it branches by itself early in the lineage. P dravuni also is known to produce the secondary metabolites dictyosphaeric acids A and B and carviolin.