The guarantee of the high quality of rice is of utmost importance because any toxic contaminant may affect consumer health, especially in countries such as Brazil where rice is part of the daily diet. A total of 187 rice samples, from field, processing and market from two different production systems, wetland from the state of Rio Grande do Sul, dryland, from the state of Maranhão and market samples from the state of São Paulo, were analyzed for fungi belonging to Aspergillus section Flavi and the presence of aflatoxins. Twenty-three soil samples from wetland and dryland were also analyzed. A total of 383 Aspergillus section Flavi strains were isolated from rice and soil samples. Using a polyphasic approach, with phenotypic (morphology and extrolite profiles) and molecular data (beta-tubulin gene sequences), five species were identified: A. flavus, A. caelatus, A. novoparasiticus, A. arachidicola and A. pseudocaelatus. This is the first report of these last three species from rice and rice plantation soil. Only seven (17%) of the A. flavus isolates produced type B aflatoxins, but 95% produced kojic acid and 69% cyclopiazonic acid. Less than 14% of the rice samples were contaminated with aflatoxins, but two of the market samples were well above the maximum tolerable limit (5μg/kg), established by the Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency.

A novel fungal species, Aspergillus labruscus sp. nov., has been found in Brazil during an investigation of the fungal species present on the surface of grape berries (Vitis labrusca L.) for use in the production of concentrated grape juice. It seems to be associated to V. labrusca, and has never been recovered from Vitis vinifera. This new species belonging to Aspergillus subgenus Circumdati section Nigri is described here using morphological characters, extrolite profiling, partial sequence data from the BenA and CaM genes, and internal transcribed spacer sequences of ribosomal DNA. Phenotypic and molecular data enabled this novel species to be clearly distinguished from other black aspergilli. A. labruscus sp. nov. is uniseriate, has yellow mycelium, poor sporulation on CYA at 25 °C, abundant salmon to pink sclerotia and rough conidia. Neoxaline and secalonic acid D were consistently produced by isolates in this taxon. The type strain of A. labruscus sp. nov. is CCT 7800 (T) = ITAL 22.223 (T) = IBT 33586 (T).

Diversity of species within Aspergillus niger clade, currently represented by A. niger sensu stricto and A. welwitshiae, was investigated combining three-locus gene sequences, Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA, secondary metabolites profile and morphology. Firstly, approximately 700 accessions belonging to this clade were investigated using calmodulin gene sequences. Based on these sequences, eight haplotypes were clearly identified as A. niger (n = 247) and 17 as A. welwitschiae (n = 403). However, calmodulin sequences did not provide definitive species identities for six haplotypes. To elucidate the taxonomic position of these haplotypes, two other loci, part of the beta-tubulin gene and part of the RNA polymerase II gene, were sequenced and used to perform an analysis of Genealogical Concordance Phylogenetic Species Recognition. This analysis enabled the recognition of two new phylogenetic species. One of the new phylogenetic species showed morphological and chemical distinguishable features in comparison to the known species A. welwitschiae and A. niger. This species is illustrated and described as Aspergillus vinaceus sp. nov. In contrast to A. niger and A. welwitschiae, A. vinaceus strains produced asperazine, but none of them were found to produce ochratoxin A and/or fumonisins. Sclerotium production on laboratory media, which does not occur in strains of A. niger and A. welwitschiae, and strictly sclerotium-associated secondary metabolites (14-Epi-hydroxy-10,23-dihydro-24,25-dehydroaflavinine; 10,23-Dihydro-24,25-dehydroaflavinine; 10,23-Dihydro-24,25-dehydro-21-oxo-aflavinine) were found in A. vinaceus. The strain type of A. vinaceus sp. nov. is ITAL 47,456 (T) (=IBT 35556).

Fine shale particles and retorted shale are waste products generated during the oil shale retorting process. These by-products are small fragments of mined shale rock, are high in silicon and also contain organic matter, micronutrients, hydrocarbons and other elements. The aims of this study were to isolate and to evaluate fungal diversity present in fine shale particles and retorted shale samples collected at the Schist Industrialization Business Unit (Six)-Petrobras in São Mateus do Sul, State of Paraná, Brazil. Combining morphology and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence, a total of seven fungal genera were identified, including Acidiella, Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Ochroconis, Penicillium, Talaromyces and Trichoderma. Acidiella was the most predominant genus found in the samples of fine shale particles, which are a highly acidic substrate (pH 2.4-3.6), while Talaromyces was the main genus in retorted shale (pH 5.20-6.20). Talaromyces sayulitensis was the species most frequently found in retorted shale, and Acidiella bohemica in fine shale particles. The presence of T. sayulitensis, T. diversus and T. stolli in oil shale is described herein for the first time. In conclusion, we have described for the first time a snapshot of the diversity of filamentous fungi colonizing solid oil shale by-products from the Irati Formation in Brazil.