Paecilomyces Bainier, Bull. Soc. Mycol.

Yang, Erfu, Karunarathna, Samantha C., Shao, Shicheng, Han, Lisu, Samarakoon, Milan C., Elgorban, Abdallah M., Chiu, Chuni, Tibpromma, Saowaluck & Promputtha, Itthayakorn, 2025, Additions to Termitomyces aurantiacus growing termite comb-associated fungi, Phytotaxa 690 (2), pp. 212-230 : 218

Paecilomyces Bainier, Bull. Soc. Mycol. France 23: 27 (1907)

Index Fungorum number: IF9196

Type species: Paecilomyces variotii Bainier, Bull. Soc. Mycol. France 23: 27 (1907)

Notes: There are 64 species of Paecilomyces (= Byssochlamys ) that have been listed in Species Fungorum (https://www.speciesfungorum.org/, accessed 15 February 2025); however, molecular sequences are accessible for only 13 species ( Spetik et al. 2022). Some sexual Paecilomyces species, previously identified as Byssochlamys , are characterized by eight hyaline to brown, ellipsoidal to obovoid ascospores accommodated in cylindrical to irregular asci ( Spetik et al. 2022). In addition, Paecilomyces is an asexually variable genus with high diversity in conidial shape and size; conidia often catenated, basocatenate, ellipsoidal to subfusiform, one-celled, smooth, brown to yellow brown ( Samson et al. 2009). Paecilomyces strains were often isolated from indoor environments, soils, plants, animals, and foodstuffs, and several strains of Paecilomyces have been recognized as human pathogens ( Urquhart & Idnurm 2023). Paecilomyces species are also known as thermotolerant fungi because some sexual ascospores can withstand temperatures up to 85 °C, and conidia can survive over 22 minutes at 60 °C ( Urquhart & Idnurm 2023). Paecilomyces may develop in low-oxygen environments and, in the presence of preservatives, produce the mycotoxin viriditoxin. Therefore, Paecilomyces species are frequent food contaminants in heat-treated foods and beverages ( Urquhart & Idnurm 2023). The phylogram of Paecilomyces is presented in Figure 4 .

Figures

FIGURE 4. Phylogram of Paecilomyces constructed using maximum likelihood analysis, and bayesian analysis, based on a combined ITS and tub2 sequence dataset. The analysis included 28 strains and 1093 characters (ITS: 1–590 bp; tub2: 591–1093 bp). Newly introduced species are highlighted in red, and the type strains are indicated in bold. Bootstrap values equal to or higher than 60% (ML, left) and Bayesian posterior probabilities equal to or higher than 0.95 (BI, right) are indicated at the nodes, while hyphens (-) denote values below these thresholds for ML/BI.