| 1 | Mycology Group, BioCentrum-DTU, Søltofts Plads, Building 221, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark |
| 2 | Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, 111 Koshland Hall, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-3102 |
| 3 | Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (JIFSAN), University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742 |
Twenty-five Stachybotrys isolates from two previous studies have been examined and compared, using morphological, chemical and phylogenetic methods. The results show that S. chartarum sensu lato can be segregated into two chemotypes and one new species. The new species, S. chlorohalonata, differs morphologically from S. chartarum by having smooth conidia, being more restricted in growth and producing a green extracellular pigment on the medium CYA. S. chlorohalonata and S. chartarum also have different tri5, chs1 and tub1 gene fragment sequences. The two chemotypes of S. chartarum, chemotype S and chemotype A, have similar morphology but differ in production of metabolites. Chemotype S produces macrocyclic trichothecenes, satratoxins and roridins, while chemotype A produces atranones and dolabellanes. There is no difference between the two chemotypes in the tub1 gene fragment, but there is a one nucleotide difference in each of the tri5 and the chs1 gene fragments.