Expanding the Diversity of Penicillium in Thailand: New Records and Habitat—Substrate Associations

Information from the abstract

Penicillium species are an industrially, agriculturally, and pharmaceutically important group of fungi, occurring in a wide range of environments. This study investigates the diversity of Penicillium from soil samples collected from Doi Tung Forest, Chiang Rai, Thailand. Furthermore, published records of Penicillium species in Thailand were compiled to provide an updated overview of their reported habitats and substrate associations based on literature available up to January 2025. The taxonomic placements of the new isolates were confirmed through morphological examination and multi-gene phylogenetic analyses using internal transcribed spacer (ITS1–5.8S–ITS2), β-tubulin (BenA), calmodulin (CaM), and the second largest subunit of RNA polymerase II (RPB2) sequence data. We report Penicillium paxilli and P. sclerotiorum for the first time from Chiang Rai Province, Thailand; P. herquei and P. circulare are documented as new records for Thailand based on morphological and molecular evidence. In addition, a review of published records revealed that soil and food products are the most commonly reported habitats and substrates associated with Penicillium species in Thailand, although this pattern may partly reflect uneven sampling across habitat types. These findings expand the current knowledge of Penicillium diversity in Thailand, adding two new geographical records and two new provincial records supported by molecular evidence. Although the global number of Penicillium species continues to rise, around 60 species have been reported from Thailand, highlighting the need for further studies to uncover the hidden diversity of this genus in the country.

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This record has an Impact Signal of 77/100 based on recency, source, collaboration, and bibliographic signals. It prioritizes monitoring and is not a judgment of research quality.

Related topics: Mycotoxins in Agriculture and Food · Fungal and yeast genetics research · Plant Pathogens and Fungal Diseases