Penicillium menonorum S.W. Peterson, in Peterson, Orchard & Menon IMA Fungus 2(2): 122. (2011).

MycoBank number: MB 519297; Index Fungorum number: IF 519297; Facesoffungi number: FoF 11434; Fig. 1

Holotype – BPI881018

Culture characteristics – Colonies growing after 5 days at 25±2 °C on following agar media: CYA colonies medium growing, slightly umbonate, cottony, velutinous to floccose, mycelium pea green (29D5) to greyish green (29D4), 10–11 mm in diam.; margins irregular, deep; sporulation greenish green (26D2) and white; exudates absent; soluble pigments absent; reverse filamentous, half dark green (28F8) and white colony. MEA colonies medium growing, velutinous, flat, umbonate, powdery, white, grey (27C1) with a combination of jade green (27E5) mycelia, 12–14 mm in diam.; margins irregular; sporulation greyish green (27C3), dark green (27F4) in between mycelia and sporulation; exudates absent; soluble pigments absent; reverse wrinkled, reverse mycelia brown (6E8), white sporulation. CYAS colonies moderate growing, floccose, slightly umbonate, green (28A6) mycelia, 15–18 mm in diam.; margin irregular, deep; sporulation white; exudates absent, soluble pigments absent; reverse wrinkled, reverse mycelia golden yellow (5B7), sporulation white. OA colonies slow-growing, planar, flat, cottony, suppressed, mycelia grey (28C1), 19 mm in diam.; margin irregular; sporulation white, green (28C6) between mycelia and sporulation; exudates colourless; soluble pigments absent; reverse white, mycelia clay (5D5), pastel green between mycelia and sporulation. CZ colonies slow-growing, flat, cottony, pastel yellow (3A4) mycelia, 9–10 mm in diam.; margin regular; sporulation white; exudates absent; soluble pigments absent; reverse white (1A1). DG18 colonies slow-growing, planar, flat, cottony, suppressed, mycelium white, 8–10 mm diam.; margin irregular; exudates absent; soluble pigments absent; reverse white (1A1). YES colonies fast-growing, floccose, radiating sulcation, slightly umbonate, 23–25 mm diam.; margin irregular; sporulation white, half mycelia and sporulation greyish green (28E5) and half pale green (25A3); exudates absent; soluble pigments absent; reverse wrinkled, white sporulation, half dull green (26E4) to cream (4A3) mycelia and sporulation. CREA colonies umbonate, cottony, mycelia yellowish-white (3A2), 10–12 mm in diam.; margin regular; sporulation white; exudates present, chrome yellow, signal yellow (3A8); soluble pigment pastel yellow (3A4); acid production present; reverse deep orange to orange chrome, mycelia orange, sporulation white.

Micromorphology – Conidiophores monoverticillate, smooth-walled, hyaline, 5–20×1.5–2.0 µm, with an apical whorl of 2–5. Phialides 5–9×2.5–3.5 µm. Conidia spherical to subspherical, 2–3.5 µm, with roughened to rugose ornamentation.

Substrates and distribution – China, Korea, and USA

Material examined – India, Meghalaya, Shillong (25° 33′ 39″ N, 91° 52′ 57″ E) from soil, 8 August 2018, K.C. Rajeshkumar, Nikhil Ashtekar, NFCCI 5064.

GenBank numbers – ITS: OK342221, BenA: OL652650, CaM: OM948803.

Notes – In the concatenated phylogenetic analyses of ITS, BenA, CaM, and rpb2 genes shows that our isolate (NFCCI 5064) clustered with the type stain of Penicillium menonorum (NRRL50410) with ML/BI=100%/1.00 statistical support. Morphologically, both strains share the same characters such as monoverticillate conidiophores with spherical conidia having roughened ornamentation. Therefore, we identified our isolate (NFCCI 5064) as P. menonorum based on the morphological and phylogenetic evidence and this is a new report of this species from India.

Figure 1 – Penicillium menonorum (NFCCI 5064). a, b Colonies after 5 day at 25±2 °C on CYA and MEA obverse and reverse. c–h CREA, CYAS, CZA, DG18, OA, YES. i–j Monoverticillate penicilli with conidia. k Conidia. Scale bar: i–k=10 μm