title: Molecular taxonomy of scopulariopsis-like fungi with description of new clinical and environmental species.
abstract: The taxonomy of scopulariopsis-like fungi, comprising numerous human opportunistic species, has recently been reassessed with delineation of the genera Microascus, Pithoascus, Pseudoscopulariopsis, and Scopulariopsis, using morphological data and multilocus sequence analysis based on four loci (ITS, LSU, EF-1α, and TUB). In this study, the same genetic markers were used to investigate a set of clinical and environmental isolates, morphologically identified as Microascus and Scopulariopsis spp. The ingroups of the concatenated phylogenetic tree resolved 41 species clades, with isolates distributed in four main lineages corresponding to the genera Microascus, Pithoascus, Scopulariopsis, and newly established genus Fuscoannellis, typified by Scopulariopsis carbonaria. The new species Microascus chinensis, Microascus onychoides, Microascus pseudolongirostris, Pithoascus lunatus, and Scopulariopsis macurae were described. Microascus trigonosporus var. terreus and Scopulariopsis alboflavescens were found different from M. trigonosporus and Scopulariopsis brevicaulis, respectively. All the species identified in the study, except Fuscoannellis carbonaria and S. macurae, originated from clinical samples, suggesting their potential role in human disease. The use of a four marker combination was demonstrated an efficient and reliable approach to infer phylogenetic relationships among the scopulariopsis-like fungi. Yet, the only genetic marker able to discriminate all species was EF-1α, therefore proposed as a secondary barcode for the identification of these fungi.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland. Electronic address: t.jagielski@biol.uw.edu.pl.
authors.forename: Tomasz
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jagielski
authors.affiliation: Unitat de Micologia, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, IISPV, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Reus, Spain.
authors.forename: Marcelo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sandoval-Denis
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Medical Mycology, Peking University Health Science Center, Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Medical Mycology, Peking University Health Science Center, Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Limin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Zofia
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Bakuła
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kalita
authors.affiliation: Department of Mycology, Chair of Microbiology, Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland.
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Skóra
authors.affiliation: Department of Mycology, Chair of Microbiology, Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland.
authors.forename: Paweł
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Krzyściak
authors.affiliation: CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: G Sybren
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: de Hoog
authors.affiliation: Unitat de Micologia, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, IISPV, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Reus, Spain.
authors.forename: Josep
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guarro
authors.affiliation: Unitat de Micologia, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, IISPV, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Reus, Spain.
authors.forename: Josepa
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gené
mesh_terms: D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D021901:DNA, Intergenic / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D006801:Humans; D008853:Microscopy; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D009181:Mycoses / Q000382:microbiology*; D020648:Peptide Elongation Factor 1 / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics; D060645:Scopulariopsis / Q000145:classification* / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014404:Tubulin / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal; D021901:DNA, Intergenic; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D020648:Peptide Elongation Factor 1; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal; C065096:RNA, ribosomal, 26S; D014404:Tubulin
keywords: DNA barcoding; Fungal identification; Microascus; Phylogeny; Pithoascus; Pseudoscopulariopsis and Scopulariopsis