phylogeny and taxonomy of penicillium species associated with some foodstuffs in mahabad, western iran

Contamination of foodstuffs by mycotoxigenic fungi is a major threat to human health. during a study on mycotoxigenic fungi associated with raisins, dried fruits apricot, apple, and white mulberry, and a traditional food (terkhêna), 50 penicillium isolates were collected from mahabad, west of iran. these isolates showed various issr fingerprinting patterns generated by (gtg)5 primer and grouped in 11 distinct clusters. a representative isolate from each cluster was selected for phylogeny and morphological studies. phylogenetic analyses of bena sequence data, resulted in the identification of five penicillium species belong to two different sections chrysogena (p. chrysogenum and p. dipodomyus) and fasciculata (p. crustosum, p. palitans and p. polonicum). as far as we know, except p. chrysogenum and p. polonicum which have previously been reported from raisins, all other recognized species here are reported for the first time from all examined foodstuffs around the world. moreover, p. dipodomyus is reported here as a new record for the mycobiota of iran.