A Molecular phylogenetic study on a new Aspergillus taxon recovered from riparian habitat in Central Italy.

Within our research on the microfungal community of the riparian leaf litter from the shores of the Sacco river (Latium, Italy) on 2009, we have isolated an Aspergillus strain related to Aspergillus cretensis Frisvad & Samson (2004), (MB500002), belonging to section Circumdati. Besides the macro- and micromorphological analysis, this Aspergillus isolate was subjected to phylogenetic investigation based on DNA sequencing analysis to gather information on its evolutionary relationships. As molecular markers, of the ribosomal genes we used the internal transcribed spacers, the 5.8S rDNA gene and the domain D1 and D2 of the 28S rDNA gene. In addition, two proteincoding regions, the tubulin beta chain gene (benA) and the calmodulin gene (cmd), previously proved to be useful for the detection of different microfungi at low taxonomic levels, were examined. On the basis of the nucleotide sequence divergence levels of the benA and cmd genes, deposited in the GenBank database (NCBI, strain SR1), Aspergillus sp. resulted phylogenetically isolated with high bootstrap values suggesting to be a new species. Here, for this new taxon we will propose the epithet A. affinis, reflecting its close morphological similarity with A. cretensis, which will be described according to the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature