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Title: PENCILLIUM THIERSII, PENCILLIUM ANGULARE AND PENICILLIUM DECATURENSE, NEW SPECIES ISOLATED FROM WOOD-DECAY FUNGI IN NORTH AMERICA AND MULTILOCUS DNA SEQUENCE ANALYSIS

Author
item Peterson, Stephen
item BAYER, EILEEN - NORTHWESTERN UNIV, IL
item Wicklow, Donald

Submitted to: Mycologia
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/19/2004
Publication Date: 6/15/2005
Citation: Peterson, S.W., Bayer, E.M., Wicklow, D.T. 2004. Pencillium thiersii, Pencillium angulare and Penicillium decaturense, new species isolated from wood-decay fungi in North America and multilocus DNA sequence analysis. Mycologia. 96(6):1280-1293.

Interpretive Summary: Molds can be the source of useful (penicillin) or dangerous (aflatoxin) chemicals. During a search for useful anti-insectan compounds, several molds from the genus Penicillium were encountered that had never been found before, anywhere in the world. Because these molds were unknown prior to our discovery of them, we are now providing names and technical descriptions of these molds. Three of the new molds have been given the names Penicillium thiersii, Penicillium angulare and Penicillium decaturense. These particular molds are being named because they are sources of new and potentially useful compounds.

Technical Abstract: We describe three new fungicolous species on the basis of phenotypic and phylogenetic differences from known species. Penicillium thiersii and P. angulare are monoverticillate; Penicillium decaturense is furcate. P. thiersii is phenotypically identified on the basis of several characteristics including growth rates, vesicle size and condium shape and roughening. Penicillium angulare is most closely related to P. adametzioides, and is distinguished from it by restricted growth rates and conidiophores greater than 60 µm in length. Penicillium decaturense is most closely related to P. miczynskii and is distinguished from that species by growth rate, minimum growth temperature and pigment production on MEA. Multilocus phylogenetic analysis confirmed the genetic distinctness of P. decaturense, and the closely related species P. miczynskii, P. chrzaszczii and P. manginii. Penicillium rivolii is a synonym of P. waksmanii on the basis of this analysis. Analysis of the tef 1-alpha gene shows rapid changes of position, number and length of introns between the species, suggesting a recent evolutionary origin for the introns.