Three new species of sect. discovered in China.

BACKGROUND

species play an important role in the nutrient cycle in natural ecosystems, degradation of vegetal biomass in industries and the implications in medicine. However, the species diversity of this genus is still far from fully understood.

METHODS

The polyphasic taxonomic approach integrating morphological comparisons and molecular phylogenetic analyses based on , , and ITS sequences was used to propose three new species.

RESULTS

Three new species of sect. isolated from soil are proposed, namely, (ex-type AS3.26221), (ex-type AS3.26220) and (ex-type AS3.26253). is unique in low growth rate, velvety texture, limited to moderate sporulation, biverticillate, monoverticillate and irregular penicilli bearing a portion of abnormally large globose conidia, it has no close relatives in phylogeny. Being a member of complex, produces mycelial funicles on Czapek yeast autolysate agar (CYA), 5% malt extract agar (MEA) and yeast extract (YES), sparse sporulation on Czapek agar (Cz), CYA, MEA and YES while abundant on oatmeal agar (OA), bearing appressed biverticillate penicilli and globose to pyriform conida with smooth to finely rough walls. belongs to complex, is characterized by velvety colony texture with moderate to abundant elm-green conidia , producing biverticillate penicilli, globose conidia with verrucose walls.

CONCLUSION

It is now a common practice in establishing new species of , and based on morphological characters and phylogenetic analyses of , , and ITS sequences. The proposal of the three novelties of in this article is not only supported by their morphological distinctiveness, but also confirmed by the phylogenetic analyses of the concatenated and -ITS, as well as the individual and ITS sequence matrices.