Species delimitation in Aspergillus section Candidi

Aspergillus section Candidi encompasses white- or yellow-sporulating species mostly isolated from indoor and cave environments, soil, food, feed, clinical material and dung. Their identification is non-trivial due to largely uniform morphology. This work 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 this work, a set of 113 strains of different origins was gathered. DNA sequences of the genes for β-tubulin (benA), calmodulin (CaM), and the second largest subunit of RNA polymerase (RPB2) were used for molecular analyses, and species delimitation methods based on a multispecies coalescent model were applied. Classical phylogenetic methods and the genealogical concordance species recognition approach were used for comparison. Phenotypic studies involved comparisons of macromorphology on four cultivation media, seven micromorphological characters and growth in temperatures ranging from 10 to 45 řC. For the final decision about species boundaries, an integrative approach consisting of four criteria was defined, based on which seven existing and two undescribed species were supported. The revised section Candidi comprises nine species, some of which manifest a high level of intraspecific..