Cave fungi study identifies 23 Cladosporium species and six new taxa in Brazil’s Cerrado

An abstract-reported study of Cladosporium fungi from six caves in Brazil’s Cerrado identified 23 species among 94 isolates and described six species new to science. The researchers combined morphological observations with multi-locus phylogenetic analyses to characterize the isolates and assess species boundaries.

Five of the newly described species were placed in the C. cladosporioides complex: C. carsi, C. lacerdae, C. mambaiense, C. nogueirae and C. propiciense. The sixth, C. mesquitapaivae, was assigned to the C. sphaerospermum complex. Selected ex-type strains were also examined through sequencing of the RPB2 and TUB barcodes.

Species delimitation used morphology, phylogenetic inferences and the pairwise homoplasy index test, supplemented by genealogical concordance phylogenetic species recognition. These analyses supported four taxonomic synonymizations: C. ribis and C. speluncae under C. bambusicola, C. brigadeirense under C. puris, and C. marinisedimentum under C. sphaerospermum. Eleven previously known species were reported for the first time in cave environments, while C. bambusicola was described as the most frequent; the abstract reports 29.17% for it but does not specify the denominator underlying that percentage.

The study covered 94 isolates from six Cerrado caves, and the available abstract does not provide sampling dates or further site-level details. Based on the reported analyses, ACT, RPB2, TEF1-α and TUB were proposed as the primary phylogenetic barcodes for distinguishing closely related Cladosporium species, particularly within the C. cladosporioides complex.

Subject of Research: Taxonomic diversity of Cladosporium fungi isolated from six caves in Brazil’s Cerrado

Article Title: Cladosporium from caves of the Brazilian savannah (Cerrado) and the description of six new species

Article References: Félix-Oliveira, P. H., Prazeres, J. F. S. A., Ferro, L. O., Antunes, A. C. A., Lima, C. F., Neves, D. S. S., Fonseca, E. O., Miranda, L. S., Momoli, R. S., Souza-Motta, C. M., Bensch, K., Crous, P. W., & Bezerra, J. D. P. (2026). Cladosporium from caves of the Brazilian savannah (Cerrado) and the description of six new species. IMA Fungus, 17, Article e191673. https://doi.org/10.3897/imafungus.17.191673

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DOI: 10.3897/imafungus.17.191673

Keywords: Cladosporium, fungal diversity, caves, Brazilian Cerrado, taxonomy, phylogenetics, species delimitation, new species, mycology, Brazilian, savannah, Cerrado