Since the last revision in 2015, the taxonomy of section Flavipedes evolved rapidly along with the availability of new species delimitation techniques. This study aims to re-evaluate the species boundaries of section Flavipedes members using modern delimitation methods applied to an extended set of strains (n = 90) collected from various environments. The analysis used DNA sequences of three house-keeping genes (benA, CaM, RPB2) and consisted of two steps: application of several single-locus (GMYC, bGMYC, PTP, bPTP) and multi-locus (STACEY) species delimitation methods to sort the isolates into putative species, which were subsequently validated using DELINEATE software that was applied for the first time in fungal taxonomy. As a result, four new species are introduced, i.e. A. alboluteus, A. alboviridis, A. inusitatus and A. lanuginosus, and A. capensis is synonymized with A. iizukae. Phenotypic analyses were performed for the new species and their relatives, and the results showed that the growth parameters at different temperatures and colonies characteristics were useful for differentiation of these taxa. The revised section harbors 18 species, most of them are known from soil. However, the most common species from the section are ecologically diverse, occurring in the indoor environment (six species), clinical samples (five species), food and feed (four species), droppings (four species) and other less common substrates/environments. Due to the occurrence of section Flavipedes species in the clinical material/hospital environment, we also evaluated the susceptibility of 67 strains to six antifungals (amphotericin B, itraconazole, posaconazole, voriconazole, isavuconazole, terbinafine) using the reference EUCAST method. These results showed some potentially clinically relevant differences in susceptibility between species. For example, MICs higher than those observed for A. fumigatus wild-type were found for both triazoles and amphotericin B for A. ardalensis, A. iizukae, and A. spelaeus whereas A. lanuginosus, A. luppiae, A. movilensis, A. neoflavipes, A. olivimuriae and A. suttoniae were comparable to or more susceptible as A. fumigatus. Finally, terbinafine was in vitro active against all species except A. alboviridis.

Department of Botany Faculty of Science Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Department of Clinical Medicine University of Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark

Department of Clinical Microbiology Rigshospitalet Copenhagen Denmark

Department of Microbiology Babcock University Ilishan Remo Ogun State Nigeria

EMSL Analytical Cinnaminson NJ USA

Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier Universidade Nova de Lisboa Oeiras Portugal

Laboratório de Microbiologia Faculdade de Medicina de São José do Rio Preto São José do Rio Preto Brazil

Laboratory of Fungal Genetics and Metabolism Institute of Microbiology Czech Academy of Sciences Prague Czech Republic

Medical Mycology Research Center Chiba University Chuo ku Chiba Japan

Unit of Mycology Statens Serum Institut Copenhagen Denmark

Unitat de Micologia Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut IISPV Universitat Rovira i Virgili Reus Spain

Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute Utrecht the Netherlands

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A review of recently introduced Aspergillus, Penicillium, Talaromyces and other Eurotiales species

Wild rodents harbour high diversity of Arthroderma

A monograph of Aspergillus section Candidi

Reducing the number of accepted species in Aspergillus series Nigri

Taxonomy of Aspergillus series Versicolores: species reduction and lessons learned about intraspecific variability

Consolidation of Chloridium: new classification into eight sections with 37 species and reinstatement of the genera Gongromeriza and Psilobotrys

Host-driven subspeciation in the hedgehog fungus, Trichophyton erinacei, an emerging cause of human dermatophytosis

Subtyping Options for Microsporum canis Using Microsatellites and MLST: A Case Study from Southern Italy

An Outbreak of Trichophyton quinckeanum Zoonotic Infections in the Czech Republic Transmitted from Cats and Dogs

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Dryad
10.5061/dryad.dz08kprxj