New and revisited species in Aspergillus section Nigri

Four new species, Aspergillus eucalypticola, A. neoniger, A. fijiensis and A. indolo genus are described and illustrated. Aspergillus eucalypticola was isolated from Eucalyptus leaf from Australia, and is related to A. tubingensis and A. costaricaensis, but could clearly be distinguished from them based on either beta-tubulin or calmodulin sequence data.

Aspergillus eucalypticola produced pyranonigrin A, funalenone, aurasperone B and other naphtho-gamma-pyrones. Aspergillus neoniger is also a biseriate species isolated from desert sand in Namibia, and mangrove water in Venezuela, which produces aurasperone B and pyranonigrin A. Aspergillus fijiensis is a uniseriate species related to A. aculeatinus, and was isolated from soil in Fiji, and from Lactuca saliva in Indonesia.

This species is able to grow at 37 degrees C, and produces asperparalines and okaramins. Aspergillus indologenus was isolated from soil, India. This species also belongs to the uniseriate group of black aspergilli, and was found to be related to, but clearly distinguishable from A. uvarum based on beta-tubulin, calmodulin and ITS sequence data.

Aspergillus indologenus produced the insecticidal compounds okaramins A, B, H, and two types of indol-alkaloids which have not been structure elucidated. Two other species, A. violaceofuscus and A. acidus, are revalidated based on molecular and extrolite data. Aspergillus violaceofuscus was found to be related to A. japonicus, and produced some of the same interesting indol-alkaloids as A. indologenus, and also produced several families of partially characterised extrolites that were also found in A. heteromorphus.

Aspergillus acidus (previously known as A. foetidus var. pallidus and A. foetidus var. acidus) is also a valid species, while A. foetidus is a synonym of A. niger based on molecular and physiological data. Two other species described previously, A. coreanus and A. lacticoffeatus, were found to be colour mutants of A. acidus and A. niger, respectively.

Methods which could be used to distinguish the two closely related and economically important species A. niger and A. awamori are also detailed. Although these species differ in their occurrence and several physiological means (elastase activities, abilities to utilise 2-deoxy-D-glucose as sole carbon source), our data indicate that only molecular approaches including sequence analysis of calmodulin or beta-tubulin genes, AFLP analysis, UP-PCR analysis or mtDNA RFLP analysis can be used reliably to distinguish these sibling species.

Aspergillus section Nigri now includes 26 taxa.