Data from: Phylogeny of xerophilic aspergilli (subgenus Aspergillus) and taxonomic revision of section Restricti

Aspergillus section Restricti together with sister sect. Aspergillus (formerly Eurotium) comprises osmophilic species, that are able to grow on substrates with low water activity and in extreme environments. We adressed the monophyly of both sections within subgenus Aspergillus and applied a multidisciplinary approach for definition of species boundaries in sect. Restricti. The monophyly of sections Aspergillus and Restricti was tested on a set of 102 taxa comprising all currently accepted species and was strongly supported by Maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inferrence (BI) analysis based on coding regions of β-tubulin (benA), calmodulin (caM) and RNA polymerase II second largest subunit (RPB2) loci. More than 300 strains belonging to sect. Restricti from various isolation sources and four continents were characterized by DNA sequencing, and 193 isolates selected for phylogenetic analyses and phenotypic studies. Species delimitation methods based on multispecies coalescent model were employed on DNA sequences from four loci, i.e., ID region of rDNA (ITS + LSU), caM, benA and RPB2, and supported recognition of 21 species, including 14 new. All these species were also strongly supported in ML and BI analyses. All recognized species can be reliably identified by all four examined genetic loci. Phenotype analysis was performed to support the delimitation of new species, it comprised colony characteristics on seven cultivation media incubated at several temperatures, growth on an osmotic gradient (six media with NaCl concentration from 0 to 25%) and analysis of morphology including scanning electron microscopy. The micromorphology of conidial heads, vesicle dimensions, temperature profiles and growth parameters in osmotic gradient were useful criteria for species identification.