Abstract

Section Nigri is among the most important from the genus Aspergillus, since it possesses economical and biotechnological properties. Its identification is considered quite hard and complex. Due to this fact, Aspergillus taxonomy has been carried out by morphological, biochemical and molecular data. Morphological characterization besides molecular analyses was performed to properly identify Aspergillus section Nigri. A set of 42 Aspergillus section Nigri isolates were obtained from Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest. From these isolates, 16.7% originated from leaf litter layer and 83.3%, from soil. The isolates were divided into three different groups according to analyzed characteristics. 26 were identified as Aspergillus aculeatus, 12 as Aspergillus aculeatinus and 4 belonged to a group called “Aspergillus niger Aggregate”, considered as biseriate.

Key words: Fungi, taxonomy, morphological identification, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), ITS.