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Aspergillusis one of the economically most important fungal genera. Recently, the ICN adopted the single name nomenclature which has forced mycologists to choose one name for fungi (e.g. Aspergillus, Fusarium, Penicillium, etc.). Previously two proposals for the single name nomenclature in Aspergilluswere presented: one attributes the name “Aspergillus” to clades comprising seven different teleomorphic names, by supporting the monophyly of this genus; the other proposes that Aspergillusis a non-monophyletic genus, by preserving the Aspergillusname only to species belonging to subgenus Circumdatiand maintaining the sexual names in the other clades. The aim of our study was to test the monophyly of Aspergilli by two independent phylogenetic analyses using a multilocus phylogenetic approach. One test was run on the publicly available coding regions of six genes (RPB1, RPB2, Tsr1, Cct8, BenA, CaM), using 96 species of Penicillium, Aspergillusand related taxa. Bayesian (MrBayes) and Ultrafast Maximum Likelihood (IQ-Tree) and Rapid Maximum Likelihood (RaxML) analyses gave the same conclusion highly supporting the monophyly of Aspergillus. The other analyses were also performed by using publicly available data of the coding sequences of nine loci (18S rRNA, 5,8S rRNA, 28S rRNA (D1-D2), RPB1, RPB2, CaM, BenA, Tsr1, Cct8) of 204 different species. Both Bayesian (MrBayes) and Maximum Likelihood (RAxML) trees obtained by this second round of independent analyses strongly supported the monophyly of the genus Aspergillus. The stability test also confirmed the robustness of the results obtained. In conclusion, statistical analyses have rejected the hypothesis that the Aspergilli are non-monophyletic, and provided robust arguments that the genus is monophyletic and clearly separated from the monophyletic genus Penicillium. There is no phylogenetic evidence to split Aspergillusinto several genera and the name Aspergilluscan be used for all the species belonging to Aspergillusi.e. the clade comprising the subgenera Aspergillus, Circumdati, Fumigati, Nidulantes,section Cremeiand certain species which were formerly part of the genera Phialosimplexand Polypaecilum. Section Cremeiand the clade containing Polypaecilumand Phialosimplexare proposed as new subgenera of Aspergillus. The phylogenetic analysis also clearly shows that Aspergillus clavatoflavusand A. zonatusdo not belong to the genus Aspergillus. Aspergillus clavatoflavusis therefore transferred to a new genus Aspergillagoas Aspergillago clavatoflavusand A. zonatuswas transferred to Penicilliopsisas P. zonata.The subgenera of Aspergillusshare similar extrolite profiles indicating that the genus is one large genus from a chemotaxonomical point of view. Morphological and ecophysiological characteristics of the species also strongly indicate that Aspergillusis a polythetic class in phenotypic characters.

Four new species, Aspergillus eucalypticola, A. neoniger, A. fijiensisand A. indologenusare described and illustrated. Aspergillus eucalypticolawas isolated from Eucalyptusleaf from Australia, and is related to A. tubingensisand A. costaricaensis, but could clearly be distinguished from them based on either β-tubulin or calmodulin sequence data. Aspergillus eucalypticolaproduced pyranonigrin A, funalenone, aurasperone B and other naphtho-γ-pyrones. Aspergillus neonigeris also a biseriate species isolated from desert sand in Namibia, and mangrove water in Venezuela, which produces aurasperone B and pyranonigrin A. Aspergillus fijiensisis a uniseriate species related to A. aculeatinus, and was isolated from soil in Fiji, and from Lactuca sativain Indonesia. This species is able to grow at 37 °C, and produces asperparalines and okaramins. Aspergillus indologenuswas isolated from soil, India. This species also belongs to the uniseriate group of black aspergilli, and was found to be related to, but clearly distinguishable from A. uvarumbased on β-tubulin, calmodulin and ITS sequence data. Aspergillus indologenusproduced the insecticidal compounds okaramins A, B, H, and two types of indol-alkaloids which have not been structure elucidated. Two other species, A. violaceofuscusand A. acidus, are revalidated based on molecular and extrolite data. Aspergillus violaceofuscuswas found to be related to A. japonicus, and produced some of the same interesting indol-alkaloids as A. indologenus, and also produced several families of partially characterised extrolites that were also found in A. heteromorphus. Aspergillus acidus(previously known as A. foetidusvar. pallidusand A. foetidusvar. acidus) is also a valid species, while A. foetidusis a synonym of A. nigerbased on molecular and physiological data. Two other species described previously, A. coreanusand A. lacticoffeatus, were found to be colour mutants of A. acidusand A. niger, respectively. Methods which could be used to distinguish the two closely related and economically important species A. nigerand A. awamoriare also detailed. Although these species differ in their occurrence and several physiological means (elastase activities, abilities to utilise 2-deoxy-D-glucose as sole carbon source), our data indicate that only molecular approaches including sequence analysis of calmodulin or β-tubulin genes, AFLP analysis, UP-PCR analysis or mtDNA RFLP analysis can be used reliably to distinguish these sibling species. Aspergillussection Nigrinow includes 26 taxa.