Removing chaos from confusion: assigning names to common human and animal pathogens in Neocosmospora.

Abstract

The genus Neocosmospora encompasses highly prevalent and aggressive human and animal fungal pathogens. Here we assign formal descriptions and Latin binomials to some of the most clinically relevant phylogenetic species of the genus. Three new species, named Neocosmospora catenata, N. gamsii and N. suttoniana (previously assigned to the informal names 'Fusarium' solani species complex (FSSC) lineages, FSSC 43, FSSC 7 and FSSC 20, respectively) are described on the basis of multilocus phylogenetic analyses (using EF-1α, ITS, LSU and RPB2 loci) and morphological characters. Lineage FSSC 9 is conspecific with the ex-type strain of Cylindrocarpon tonkinense, thus the new combination Neocosmospora tonkinensis is proposed. In addition, and based on the latest taxonomy for this generic complex, new combinations are introduced for four medically important taxa: Neocosmospora keratoplastica, N. lichenicola, N. metavorans and N. petroliphila. The most significant distinctive features for all the clinically relevant species treated here are compared and illustrated.