Data from: Re-examination of species limits in Aspergillus section Flavipedes using advanced species delimitation methods and description of four new species

Since the last revision in 2015, the taxonomy of section Flavipedes
evolved rapidly along with the availability of new species delimitation
techniques. This study aims to re-evaluate the species boundaries of
section Flavipedes members using modern delimitation methods applied to an
extended set of strains (n=90) collected from various environments. The
analysis used DNA sequences of three house-keeping genes (benA, CaM, RPB2)
and consisted of two steps: application of several single-locus (GMYC,
bGMYC, PTP, bPTP) and multi-locus (STACEY) species delimitation methods to
sort the isolates into putative species, which were subsequently validated
using DELINEATE software that was applied for the first time in fungal
taxonomy. As a result, four new species are introduced, i.e. A.
alboluteus, A. alboviridis, A. inusitatus and A. lanuginosus, and A.
capensis is synonymized with A. iizukae. Phenotypic analyses were
performed for the new species and their relatives and the results showed
that the growth parameters at different temperatures and colonies
characteristics were useful for differentiation of these taxa. The revised
section harbors 18 species, most of them are known from soil. However,
common species from the section are ecologically diverse, occurring in
indoor environment (6 species), clinical samples (5 species), food and
feed (4 species), droppings (4 species) and other less common
substrates/environments. Due to the occurrence of section Flavipedes
species in the clinical material/hospital environment, we also evaluated
the susceptibility of 66 strains to six antifungals (Amphotericin B,
Itraconazole, Posaconazole, Voriconazole, Isavuconazole, Terbinafine)
using the reference EUCAST method. These results showed some potentially
clinically relevant differences in susceptibility between species. For
example, MICs higher than those observed for wild-type A. fumigatus were
found for both triazoles and amphotericin B for A. ardalensis, A. iizukae,
and A. spelaeus whereas A. lanuginosus, A. luppiae, A. movilensis, A.
neoflavipes, and A. olivimuriae were comparable to or more susceptible as
A. fumigatus. Finally, terbinafine was in vitro active against all species
except A. alboviridis.