Along the footpath of Penicillium discovery: Six new species from the Woodville Big Tree Forest Trail

ABSTRACT

In this study, we studied the diversity of Penicillium occurring in soil collected along the Woodville Big Tree Forest Trail situated close to the coastal town of Wilderness in South Africa. Strains were accessioned into a collection and then identified to species based on β-tubulin DNA sequences, which is the recommended DNA barcode for the genus. The 74 strains were found to represent 18 species, including six we consider undescribed. Here, we introduce them as Penicillium claroviride, P. kalander, P. mattheeae, P. outeniquaense, P. subfuscum, and P. umkhoba. Phylogenetic comparisons were made, and genealogical concordance was demonstrated for these new species using DNA sequences from nuc rDNA internal transcribed spacer region ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 (ITS barcode), β-tubulin, calmodulin, and RNA polymerase II second largest subunit. Notes on morphological characters distinguishing the new species from their close relatives are provided.

KEYWORDS:

• Eurotiales
• fungal diversity
• fynbos
• multigene phylogenies
• 6 new taxa

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to acknowledge the DNA Sanger Sequencing Facility, Faculty Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria, where sequencing for this project was done. We are grateful to Mike and Brenda Wingfield who collected soil for this project, to Nombulelo Qikani who provided Xhosa assistance, and to Konstanze Bensch who provided nomenclatural and Latin assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00275514.2022.2135915

Additional information

Funding

We acknowledge the National Research Foundation (NRF) in South Africa and the Future Leaders—African Independent Research fellowship program (FLAIR, FLR\R1\201831), which funded this work. The FLAIR fellowship program is a partnership between the African Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society funded by the UK Government’s Global Challenges Research Fund. C.M.V. acknowledges Plant Health and Protection, Agricultural Research Council (ARC-PHP), where initial isolations were made while employed there.