Penicillium cremeogriseum Chalab., Bot. Mater. Otd. Sporov. Rast. 6:168. 1950

Index Fungorum number: IF 302390; Mycobank number: MB 302390; Facesoffungi number: FoF 16044 Fig. 1

Holotype – CBS 223.66

Saprobic on soil. Sexual morph: Not observed. Asexual morph: Conidiophores predominantly biverticillate, rarely with monoverticillate; Stipes long, smooth-walled, 150–400 × 2.5–3.0 µm; Metulae two, divergent, 10–25 × 2.5–3.2 μm; Phialides ampulliform, 3–7 per metulae, 6–9 × 2.5–3.0 µm; Conidia subspheroidal to subellipsoidal, smooth to finely rougned ornamentation, 2.5−3.0 × 2.2−3.0; Sclerotia not observed.

Culture characteristics – Colonies growing after 7 days at 25±2 °C on following agar media: CYA colonies fast growing, slight radially sulcations, floccose, mycelia white (1A1); 34–37 mm in diam.; margins regular; no sporulation; exudate absent; soluble pigment absent; reverse filamentous, golden (4B5) at centre, light yellow (4A4) to yellowish white (4A2)towards periphery. MEA colonies fast growing, velutinous, with a concentric circle, slightly raised, mycelia white (1A1) entire, 35–46 mm in diam.; margins regular, deep; no sporulation; exudates absent; soluble pigments absent; reverse yellowish white (1A2) entire. CYAS colonies medium-growing, floccose, raise, mycelia white (1A1), 26–27 mm in diam.; margin regular, deep; no sporulation; exudates absent; soluble pigments absent; reverse light yellow (4A4) at centre, yellowish white (4A2) towards periphery. OA colonies fast-growing, velutinous, with concentric rings, sunken at centre; mycelia white (1A1), 40–45 mm in diam.; margin regular and raised; sporulation greyish white (1B1); exudates present at centre in form of colourless droplets; soluble pigments absent; reverse yellowish white (1A2) at centre, white (1A1) towards periphery. CZ colonies medium-growing, mycelial, white (1A1) entire, 21–24 mm in diam.; margin irregular; exudates absent; soluble pigments absent; reverse white (1A1) entire. DG18 colonies slow-growing, powdery, mycelium white (1A1), 9–10 mm diam.; margin irregular; exudates absent; soluble pigments absent; reverse white (1A1) entire. YES, colonies fast-growing, velutinous, radially sulcate, slightly umbonate, mycelia white (1A1); 36–40 mm diam.; margin irregular, highly raised; sporulation greyish white (1B1); exudates absent; soluble pigments absent; reverse chamcis (4C5) at centre, light yellow (4A4) towards periphery. CREA colonies slow-growing, velutinous, umbonate, mycelia white (1A1) entire, 17–21 mm in diam.; margin irregular; reverse white (1A1) entire; acid production absent.

Material examined – India, Uttarakhand, Bhowali (29° 25′ 22″ N, 74° 53′ 19″ E), from garden soil sample, 21 March 2019, Nikhil Ashtekar and Rajeshkumar K.C., living culture NFCCI 5293.

Hosts and distribution – China, Korea, Russia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Ukraine (Visagie et al. 2015; Diao et al. 2019; Milanović et al. 2019; Choi et al. 2020; Sang et al. 2021; Silva et al. 2021).

GenBank numbers – NFCCI 5293: ITS: OK342120, BenA: OL652653, CaM: OM948800, rpb2: OL652657.

Notes – Based on a concatenated phylogenetic analysis of the ITS, BenA, CaM, and rpb2 gene regions, the isolated strain of P. cremeogriseum (NFCCI 5293) aligns with the type strain of P. cremeogriseum (CBS 223.66). Morphologically, both strains share the same characteristics such as predominantly biverticillate conidiophores with a smooth-walled stipe, ampulliform phialides, spheroidal to subspheroida conidia with smooth ornamentation. Further, both the colonies show floccose texture with slight radial sulcations on CYA media. Hence, the macromorphological and micromorphological characteristics of the isolated species match with the type species, P. cremeogriseum (CBS 223.66). However, P. echinulonalgiovense has not been reported from India and this is the first report.

Figure 1 – Penicillium cremeogriseum (NFCCI 5293). a, b Colonies after 7d at 25±2 °C on CYA and MEA obverse and reverse. c CREA obverse. d CYAS obverse. e CZA obverse. f DG18 obverse. g OA (natural) obverse. h YES obverse. i–j terverticillate conidiophore. k Conidia. Scale bar: i–k=10 μm