Use of a rep-PCR system to predict species in the Aspergillus section Nigri

The Aspergillus niger aggregate within the A. section Nigri is a group of black-spored aspergilli of great agro-economic importance whose well defined taxonomy has been elusive. Rep-PCR has become a rapid and cost-effective method for genotyping fungi and bacteria. In the present study, we evaluated the discriminatory power of a semi-automated rep-PCR barcoding system to distinguish morphotypic species and compare the results with the data obtained from ITS and partial calmodulin regions. For this purpose, 20 morphotyped black-spored Aspergillus species were used to create the A. section Nigri library in this barcoding system that served to identify 34 field isolates. A pair-wise similarity matrix was calculated using the cone-based Pearson correlation method and the dendrogram was generated by the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA), illustrating four different clustered groups: the uniseriate cluster (I), the Aspergillus carbonarius cluster (II), and. the two A. niger aggregate clusters (named III.A and III.B). Rep-PCR showed higher resolution than the ITS and the partial calmodulin gene analytical procedures. The data of the 34 unknown field isolates, collected from different locations in the United States, indicated that only 12% of the field isolates were > 95% similar to one of the genotypes included in the A. section Nigri library. However, 64% of the field isolates matched genotypes with the reference library (similarity values > 90%). Based on these results, this barcoding procedure has the potential for use as a reproducible tool for identifying the black-spored aspergilli.