The order Eurotiales is diverse and includes species that impact our daily lives in many ways. In the past, its taxonomy was difficult due to morphological similarities, which made accurate identification of species difficult. This situation improved and stabilised with recent taxonomic and nomenclatural revisions that modernised Aspergillus, Penicillium and Talaromyces. This was mainly due to the availability of curated accepted species lists and the publication of comprehensive DNA sequence reference datasets. This has also led to a sharp increase in the number of new species described each year with the accepted species lists in turn also needing regular updates. The focus of this study was to review the 160 species described between the last list of accepted species published in 2020 until 31 December 2022. To review these species, single-gene phylogenies were constructed and GCPSR (Genealogical Concordance Phylogenetic Species Recognition) was applied. Multi-gene phylogenetic analyses were performed to further determine the relationships of the newly introduced species. As a result, we accepted 133 species (37 Aspergillus, two Paecilomyces, 59 Penicillium, two Rasamsonia, 32 Talaromyces and one Xerochrysium), synonymised 22, classified four as doubtful and created a new combination for Paraxerochrysium coryli, which is classified in Xerochrysium. This brings the number of accepted species to 453 for Aspergillus, 12 for Paecilomyces, 535 for Penicillium, 14 for Rasamsonia, 203 for Talaromyces and four for Xerochrysium. We accept the newly introduced section Tenues (in Talaromyces), and series Hainanici (in Aspergillus sect. Cavernicolarum) and Vascosobrinhoana (in Penicillium sect. Citrina). In addition, we validate the invalidly described species Aspergillus annui and A. saccharicola, and series Annuorum (in Aspergillus sect. Flavi), introduce a new combination for Dichlaena lentisci (type of the genus) and place it in a new section in Aspergillus subgenus Circumdati, provide an updated description for Rasamsonia oblata, and list excluded and recently synonymised species that were previously accepted. This study represents an important update of the accepted species lists in Eurotiales. Taxonomic novelties: New sections: Aspergillus section Dichlaena Visagie, Kocsubé & Houbraken. New series: Aspergillus series Annuorum J.J. Silva, B.T. Iamanaka, Frisvad. New species: Aspergillus annui J.J. Silva, M.H.P. Fungaro, Frisvad, M.H. Taniwaki & B.T. Iamanaka; Aspergillus saccharicola J.J. Silva, Frisvad, M.H.P. Fungaro, M.H. Taniwaki & B.T. Iamanaka. New combinations: Aspergillus lentisci (Durieu & Mont.) Visagie, Malloch, L. Kriegsteiner, Samson & Houbraken; Xerochrysium coryli (Crous & Decock) Visagie & Houbraken. Citation: Visagie CM, Yilmaz N, Kocsubé S, Frisvad JC, Hubka V, Samson RA, Houbraken J (2024). A review of recently introduced Aspergillus, Penicillium, Talaromyces and other Eurotiales species. Studies in Mycology 107: 1-66. doi: 10.3114/sim.2024.107.01.

• Keywords
• Accepted species list, Aspergillaceae, DNA barcodes, Penicillaginaceae, Thermoascaceae, Trichocomaceae, new taxa, nomenclature, phylogenetic species concept,
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• Journal Article MeSH

Arthroderma is the most diverse genus of dermatophytes, and its natural reservoir is considered to be soil enriched by keratin sources. During a study on the diversity of dermatophytes in wild small rodents in the Czech Republic, we isolated several strains of Arthroderma. To explore the diversity and ecological significance of these isolates from rodents (n = 29), we characterised the strains genetically (i.e., sequenced ITS, tubb and tef1α), morphologically, physiologically, and by conducting mating experiments. We then compared the rodent-derived strains to existing ITS sequence data from GenBank and the GlobalFungi Database to further investigate biogeography and the association of Arthroderma species with different types of environments. In total, eight Arthroderma species were isolated from rodents, including four previously described species (A. crocatum, A. cuniculi, A. curreyi, A. quadrifidum) and four new species proposed herein, i.e., A. rodenticum, A. simile, A. zoogenum and A. psychrophilum. The geographical distribution of these newly described species was not restricted to the Czech Republic nor rodents. Additional isolates were obtained from bats and other mammals, reptiles, and soil from Europe, North America, and Asia. Data mining showed that the genus has a diverse ecology, with some lineages occurring relatively frequently in soil, whereas others appeared to be more closely associated with live animals, as we observed in A. rodenticum. Low numbers of sequence reads ascribed to Arthroderma in soil show that the genus is rare in this environment, which supports the hypothesis that Arthroderma spp. are not soil generalists but rather strongly associated with animals and keratin debris. This is the first study to utilise existing metabarcoding data to assess biogeographical, ecological, and diversity patterns in dermatophytes. Citation: Moulíková Š, Kolařík M, Lorch JM, et al. 2022. Wild rodents harbour high diversity of Arthroderma. Persoonia 50: 27- 47. https://doi.org/10.3767/persoonia.2023.50.02.

• Keywords
• Arthroderma, GlobalFungi, geophilic dermatophytes, mating type genes, new taxa, polyphasic taxonomy, wild rodents,
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• Journal Article MeSH

Aspergillus section Candidi encompasses white- or yellow-sporulating species mostly isolated from indoor and cave environments, food, feed, clinical material, soil and dung. Their identification is non-trivial due to largely uniform morphology. This study aims to re-evaluate the species boundaries in the section Candidi and present an overview of all existing species along with information on their ecology. For the analyses, we assembled a set of 113 strains with diverse origin. For the molecular analyses, we used DNA sequences of three house-keeping genes (benA, CaM and RPB2) and employed species delimitation methods based on a multispecies coalescent model. Classical phylogenetic methods and genealogical concordance phylogenetic species recognition (GCPSR) approaches were used for comparison. Phenotypic studies involved comparisons of macromorphology on four cultivation media, seven micromorphological characters and growth at temperatures ranging from 10 to 45 °C. Based on the integrative approach comprising four criteria (phylogenetic and phenotypic), all currently accepted species gained support, while two new species are proposed (A. magnus and A. tenebricus). In addition, we proposed the new name A. neotritici to replace an invalidly described A. tritici. The revised section Candidi now encompasses nine species, some of which manifest a high level of intraspecific genetic and/or phenotypic variability (e.g., A. subalbidus and A. campestris) while others are more uniform (e.g., A. candidus or A. pragensis). The growth rates on different media and at different temperatures, colony colours, production of soluble pigments, stipe dimensions and vesicle diameters contributed the most to the phenotypic species differentiation. Taxonomic novelties: New species: Aspergillus magnus Glässnerová & Hubka; Aspergillus neotritici Glässnerová & Hubka; Aspergillus tenebricus Houbraken, Glässnerová & Hubka. Citation: Glässnerová K, Sklenář F, Jurjević Ž, Houbraken J, Yaguchi T, Visagie CM, Gené J, Siqueira JPZ, Kubátová A, Kolařík M, Hubka V (2022). A monograph of Aspergillus section Candidi. Studies in Mycology 102: 1-51. doi: 10.3114/sim.2022.102.01.

• Keywords
• Aspergillus candidus, Aspergillus tritici, genealogical concordance, integrative taxonomy, intraspecific variability, multispecies coalescent model,
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• Journal Article MeSH

The Aspergillus series Nigri contains biotechnologically and medically important species. They can produce hazardous mycotoxins, which is relevant due to the frequent occurrence of these species on foodstuffs and in the indoor environment. The taxonomy of the series has undergone numerous rearrangements, and currently, there are 14 species accepted in the series, most of which are considered cryptic. Species-level identifications are, however, problematic or impossible for many isolates even when using DNA sequencing or MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, indicating a possible problem in the definition of species limits or the presence of undescribed species diversity. To re-examine the species boundaries, we collected DNA sequences from three phylogenetic markers (benA, CaM and RPB2) for 276 strains from series Nigri and generated 18 new whole-genome sequences. With the three-gene dataset, we employed phylogenetic methods based on the multispecies coalescence model, including four single-locus methods (GMYC, bGMYC, PTP and bPTP) and one multilocus method (STACEY). From a total of 15 methods and their various settings, 11 supported the recognition of only three species corresponding to the three main phylogenetic lineages: A. niger, A. tubingensis and A. brasiliensis. Similarly, recognition of these three species was supported by the GCPSR approach (Genealogical Concordance Phylogenetic Species Recognition) and analysis in DELINEATE software. We also showed that the phylogeny based on benA, CaM and RPB2 is suboptimal and displays significant differences from a phylogeny constructed using 5 752 single-copy orthologous proteins; therefore, the results of the delimitation methods may be subject to a higher than usual level of uncertainty. To overcome this, we randomly selected 200 genes from these genomes and performed ten independent STACEY analyses, each with 20 genes. All analyses supported the recognition of only one species in the A. niger and A. brasiliensis lineages, while one to four species were inconsistently delimited in the A. tubingensis lineage. After considering all of these results and their practical implications, we propose that the revised series Nigri includes six species: A. brasiliensis, A. eucalypticola, A. luchuensis (syn. A. piperis), A. niger (syn. A. vinaceus and A. welwitschiae), A. tubingensis (syn. A. chiangmaiensis, A. costaricensis, A. neoniger and A. pseudopiperis) and A. vadensis. We also showed that the intraspecific genetic variability in the redefined A. niger and A. tubingensis does not deviate from that commonly found in other aspergilli. We supplemented the study with a list of accepted species, synonyms and unresolved names, some of which may threaten the stability of the current taxonomy. Citation: Bian C, Kusuya Y, Sklenář F, D'hooge E, Yaguchi T, Ban S, Visagie CM, Houbraken J, Takahashi H, Hubka V (2022). Reducing the number of accepted species in Aspergillus series Nigri. Studies in Mycology 102: 95-132. doi: 10.3114/sim.2022.102.03.

• Keywords
• Aspergillus luchuensis, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus tubingensis, clinical fungi, indoor fungi, infraspecific variability, multigene phylogeny, multispecies coalescence model, ochratoxin A, species delimitation,
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• Journal Article MeSH

Aspergillus series Versicolores members occur in a wide range of environments and substrates such as indoor environments, food, clinical materials, soil, caves, marine or hypersaline ecosystems. The taxonomy of the series has undergone numerous re-arrangements including a drastic reduction in the number of species and subsequent recovery to 17 species in the last decade. The identification to species level is however problematic or impossible in some isolates even using DNA sequencing or MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry indicating a problem in the definition of species boundaries. To revise the species limits, we assembled a large dataset of 518 strains. From these, a total of 213 strains were selected for the final analysis according to their calmodulin (CaM) genotype, substrate and geography. This set was used for phylogenetic analysis based on five loci (benA, CaM, RPB2, Mcm7, Tsr1). Apart from the classical phylogenetic methods, we used multispecies coalescence (MSC) model-based methods, including one multilocus method (STACEY) and five single-locus methods (GMYC, bGMYC, PTP, bPTP, ABGD). Almost all species delimitation methods suggested a broad species concept with only four species consistently supported. We also demonstrated that the currently applied concept of species is not sustainable as there are incongruences between single-gene phylogenies resulting in different species identifications when using different gene regions. Morphological and physiological data showed overall lack of good, taxonomically informative characters, which could be used for identification of such a large number of existing species. The characters expressed either low variability across species or significant intraspecific variability exceeding interspecific variability. Based on the above-mentioned results, we reduce series Versicolores to four species, namely A. versicolor, A. creber, A. sydowii and A. subversicolor, and the remaining species are synonymized with either A. versicolor or A. creber. The revised descriptions of the four accepted species are provided. They can all be identified by any of the five genes used in this study. Despite the large reduction in species number, identification based on phenotypic characters remains challenging, because the variation in phenotypic characters is high and overlapping among species, especially between A. versicolor and A. creber. Similar to the 17 narrowly defined species, the four broadly defined species do not have a specific ecology and are distributed worldwide. We expect that the application of comparable methodology with extensive sampling could lead to a similar reduction in the number of cryptic species in other extensively studied Aspergillus species complexes and other fungal genera. Citation: Sklenář F, Glässnerová K, Jurjević Ž, Houbraken J, Samson RA, Visagie CM, Yilmaz N, Gené J, Cano J, Chen AJ, Nováková A, Yaguchi T, Kolařík M, Hubka V (2022). Taxonomy of Aspergillus series Versicolores: species reduction and lessons learned about intraspecific variability. Studies in Mycology 102 : 53-93. doi: 10.3114/sim.2022.102.02.

• Keywords
• Aspergillus creber, Aspergillus sydowii, Aspergillus versicolor, indoor fungi, multispecies coalescent model, osmotolerance, species delimitation, sterigmatocystin,
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

Chloridium is a little-studied group of soil- and wood-inhabiting dematiaceous hyphomycetes that share a rare mode of phialidic conidiogenesis on multiple loci. The genus has historically been divided into three morphological sections, i.e. Chloridium, Gongromeriza, and Psilobotrys. Sexual morphs have been placed in the widely perceived genus Chaetosphaeria, but unlike their asexual counterparts, they show little or no morphological variation. Recent molecular studies have expanded the generic concept to include species defined by a new set of morphological characters, such as the collar-like hyphae, setae, discrete phialides, and penicillately branched conidiophores. The study is based on the consilience of molecular species delimitation methods, phylogenetic analyses, ancestral state reconstruction, morphological hypotheses, and global biogeographic analyses. The multilocus phylogeny demonstrated that the classic concept of Chloridium is polyphyletic, and the original sections are not congeneric. Therefore, we abolish the existing classification and propose to restore the generic status of Gongromeriza and Psilobotrys. We present a new generic concept and define Chloridium as a monophyletic, polythetic genus comprising 37 species distributed in eight sections. In addition, of the taxa earlier referred to Gongromeriza, two have been redisposed to the new genus Gongromerizella. Analysis of published metabarcoding data showed that Chloridium is a common soil fungus representing a significant (0.3 %) proportion of sequence reads in environmental samples deposited in the GlobalFungi database. The analysis also showed that they are typically associated with forest habitats, and their distribution is strongly influenced by climate, which is confirmed by our data on their ability to grow at different temperatures. We demonstrated that Chloridium forms species-specific ranges of distribution, which is rarely documented for microscopic soil fungi. Our study shows the feasibility of using the GlobalFungi database to study the biogeography and ecology of fungi. Taxonomic novelties: New genus: Gongromerizella Réblová; New sections: Chloridium section Cryptogonytrichum Réblová, Hern.-Restr., M. Kolařík & F. Sklenar, Chloridium section Gonytrichopsis Réblová, Hern.-Restr., M. Kolařík & F. Sklenar, Chloridium section Metachloridium Réblová, Hern.-Restr., M. Kolařík & F. Sklenar, Chloridium section Volubilia Réblová, Hern.-Restr., M. Kolařík & F. Sklenar; New species: Chloridium bellum Réblová & Hern.-Restr., Chloridium biforme Réblová & Hern.-Restr., Chloridium detriticola Réblová & Hern.-Restr., Chloridium gamsii Réblová & Hern.-Restr., Chloridium guttiferum Réblová & Hern.-Restr., Chloridium moratum Réblová & Hern.-Restr., Chloridium peruense Réblová & Hern.-Restr., Chloridium novae-zelandiae Réblová & Hern.-Restr., Chloridium elongatum Réblová & Hern.-Restr., Chloridium volubile Réblová & Hern.-Restr.; New varieties: Chloridium bellum var. luteum Réblová & Hern.-Restr., Chloridium detriticola var. effusum Réblová & Hern.-Restr., Chloridium chloridioides var. convolutum Réblová & Hern.-Restr.; New combinations: Chloridium section Gonytrichum (Nees & T. Nees) Réblová, Hern.-Restr., M. Kolařík & F. Sklenar, Chloridium section Mesobotrys (Sacc.) Réblová, Hern.-Restr., M. Kolařík & F. Sklenar, Chloridium section Pseudophialocephala (M.S. Calabon et al.) Réblová, Hern.-Restr., M. Kolařík & F. Sklenar, Chloridium simile (W. Gams & Hol.-Jech.) Réblová & Hern.-Restr., Chloridium chloridioides (W. Gams & Hol.-Jech.) Réblová & Hern.-Restr., Chloridium subglobosum (W. Gams & Hol.-Jech.) Réblová & Hern.-Restr., Chloridium fuscum (Corda) Réblová & Hern.-Restr., Chloridium ypsilosporum (Hol.-Jech.) Réblová & Hern.-Restr., Chloridium costaricense (G. Weber et al.) Réblová & Hern.-Restr., Chloridium cuneatum (N.G. Liu et al.) Réblová & Hern.-Restr., Fusichloridium cylindrosporum (W. Gams & Hol.-Jech.) Réblová, Gongromeriza myriocarpa (Fr.) Réblová, Gongromeriza pygmaea (P. Karst.) Réblová, Gongromerizella lignicola (F. Mangenot) Réblová, Gongromerizella pachytrachela (W. Gams & Hol.-Jech) Réblová, Gongromerizella pini (Crous & Akulov) Réblová; New name: Chloridium pellucidum Réblová & Hern.-Restr.; Epitypifications (basionyms): Chaetopsis fusca Corda, Gonytrichum caesium var. subglobosum W. Gams & Hol.-Jech.; Lectotypification (basionym): Gonytrichum caesium Nees & T. Nees. Citation: Réblová M, Hernández-Restrepo M, Sklenář F, Nekvindová J, Réblová K, Kolařík M (2022). Consolidation of Chloridium: new classification into eight sections with 37 species and reinstatement of the genera Gongromeriza and Psilobotrys. Studies in Mycology 103: 87-212. doi: 10.3114/sim.2022.103.04.

• Keywords
• 35 new taxa, Chaetosphaeriaceae, molecular systematics, phialidic conidiogenesis, soil fungi, species delimitation methods, wood-inhabiting fungi,
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

Trichophyton erinacei is a main cause of dermatophytosis in hedgehogs and is increasingly reported from human infections worldwide. This pathogen was originally described in the European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) but is also frequently found in the African four-toed hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris), a popular pet animal worldwide. Little is known about the taxonomy and population genetics of this pathogen despite its increasing importance in clinical practice. Notably, whether there are different populations or even cryptic species associated with different hosts or geographic regions is not known. To answer these questions, we collected 161 isolates, performed phylogenetic and population-genetic analyses, determined mating-type, and characterised morphology and physiology. Multigene phylogeny and microsatellite analysis supported T. erinacei as a monophyletic species, in contrast to highly incongruent single-gene phylogenies. Two main subpopulations, one specific mainly to Atelerix and second to Erinaceus hosts, were identified inside T. erinacei, and slight differences in the size of microconidia and antifungal susceptibilities were observed among them. Although the process of speciation into two lineages is ongoing in T. erinacei, there is still gene flow between these populations. Thus, we present T. erinacei as a single species, with notable intraspecies variability in genotype and phenotype. The data from wild hedgehogs indicated that sexual reproduction in T. erinacei and de novo infection of hedgehogs from soil are probably rare events and that clonal horizontal spread strongly dominates. The molecular typing approach used in this study represents a suitable tool for further epidemiological surveillance of this emerging pathogen in both animals and humans. The results of this study also highlighted the need to use a multigene phylogeny ideally in combination with other independent molecular markers to understand the species boundaries of dermatophytes. Citation: Čmoková A, Kolařík M, Guillot J, et al. 2022. Host-driven subspeciation in the hedgehog fungus, Trichophyton erinacei, an emerging cause of human dermatophytosis. Persoonia 48: 203-218. https://doi.org/10.3767/persoonia.2022.48.06.

• Keywords
• Trichophyton benhamiae complex, epizootic fungal infections, microsatellite typing, multigene phylogeny, population genetics, skin infections, zoophilic dermatophytes,
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• Journal Article MeSH

Microsporum canis is considered one of the most common zoophilic dermatophyte species causing infections in animals and humans worldwide. However, molecular epidemiological studies on this dermatophyte are still rare. In this study, we aimed to analyse the population structure and relationships between M. canis strains (n = 66) collected in southern Italy and those isolated from symptomatic and asymptomatic animals (cats, dogs and rabbits) and humans. For subtyping purposes, using multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and multilocus microsatellite typing (MLMT), we first used a limited set of strains to screen for variability. No intraspecies variability was detected in six out of the eight reference genes tested and only the ITS and IGS regions showed two and three sequence genotypes, respectively, resulting in five MLST genotypes. All of eight genes were, however, useful for discrimination among M. canis, M. audouinii and M. ferrugineum. In total, eighteen microsatellite genotypes (A-R) were recognized using MLMT based on six loci, allowing a subdivision of strains into two clusters based on the Bayesian iterative algorithm. Six MLMT genotypes were from multiple host species, while 12 genotypes were found only in one host. There were no statistically significant differences between clusters in terms of host spectrum and the presence or absence of lesions. Our results confirmed that the MLST approach is not useful for detailed subtyping and examining the population structure of M. canis, while microsatellite analysis is a powerful tool for conducting surveillance studies and gaining insight into the epidemiology of infections due to this pathogen.

• Keywords
• genetic diversity, microsatellite typing, multilocus sequence typing, population structure, zoonotic infections, zoophilic dermatophytes,
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

Trichophyton quinckeanum, a zoophilic dermatophyte mostly known as the causative agent of rodent favus, is relatively rarely reported to cause human infections. Indeed, no infections were detected in Czechia between 2012 and 2015 despite routine verification of species identification by ITS rDNA sequencing. By contrast, 25 human and 11 animal cases of infection were documented from December 2016 to December 2020 and the rates tended to grow every following year. Interestingly, most of the cases were reported in the Olomouc region, suggesting a local outbreak. We bring the evidence that human T. quinckeanum infections are most commonly contracted from infected cats or, less frequently, dogs. Although rodents or contaminated soil and environment could be the source of infection to cats and dogs, the occurrence of infections in multiple animals in the same household suggests direct transmission among animals. Confirmation of the identification by molecular methods is highly recommended due to morphological similarity with T. mentagrophytes/T. interdigitale. Antifungal susceptibility testing of isolates to eight antifungals was performed using EUCAST methodology (E.Def 11.0). Among the tested antifungals, terbinafine, amorolfine, ciclopirox and efinaconazole were most potent in vitro and elevated minimum inhibitory concentrations were obtained for fluconazole and ketoconazole.

• Keywords
• EUCAST, MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, antifungal susceptibility testing, terbinafine, tinea capitis, tinea corporis, zoonotic infections, zoophilic dermatophytes,
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH