Aspergillus cibarius sp. nov., from traditional meju in Korea

Abstract

Aspergillus cibarius sp. nov. isolated from meju, a brick of dried fermented soybeans in Korea, is described. The species was also found from black bean, bread and salami in the Netherlands. It is characterized by abundant yellow to reddish brown ascomata and small lenticular ascospores (4.5-5.5 μm) with a wide furrow, low equatorial crests and tuberculate or reticulate convex surface. The species was resolved as phylogenetically distinct from the other reported Aspergillus species with an Eurotium teleomorph based on multilocus sequence typing using partial fragments of the β-tubulin, calmodulin, ITS and RNA polymerase II genes.