In: Sydowia 75, (2023): 181-192; ISSN 0082-0598, DOI 10.12905/0380.sydowia75-2023-0181, Published online on February 7, 2023

Exophiala atacamensis, sp. nov., and E. crusticola from
the Atacama Desert, northern Chile

Hugo Madrid1,*, Josepa Gené2, Luis Quijada3, Taimy Cantillo4, Rodrigo Gacitúa5, Jorge Valdés6, Carolina
Sánchez7, Francesc Xavier Prenafeta-Boldú8, Nalin Wijayawardene9, 10, Víctor Silva11 & Patricio Godoy12

1 Departamento de Tecnología Médica, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Tarapacá, Sede Iquique,
Av. Luis Emilio Recabarren 2477, Iquique, Chile
2 Unitat de Micologia, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut and IISPV, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Sant Llorenc¸ 21
(43201) Reus, Spain
3 Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Farlow Reference Library and Herbarium of Cryptogamic Botany,
Harvard University Herbaria. 20 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
4 Departamento de Ciéncias Biológicas, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, v. Transnordestina, S/N – Novo Horizonte,
44036-900, Feira de Santana, BA, Brasil
5 Escuela de Tecnología Médica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Mayor, Camino La Pirámide 5750, Huechuraba,
Santiago, Chile
6 Centro de Bioinformática y Biología Integrativa, Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, República 239, Universidad Andrés Bello,
Santiago, Chile
7 Centro de Genómica y Bioinformática, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Mayor, Camino La Pirámide 5750, Huechuraba,
Santiago, Chile
8 IRTA – Institut de Recerca i Tecnologies Agroalimentàries, Torre Marimon, 08140 Caldes de Montbui, Spain
9 Center for Yunnan Plateau Biological Resources Protection and Utilization, College of Biological Resource and Food
Engineering, Qujing Normal University, Qujing, Yunnan 655011, P.R. China
10 Section of Genetics, Institute for Research and Development in Health and Social Care, No: 393/3, Lily Avenue, Off Robert
Gunawardane Mawatha, Battaramulla 10120, Sri Lanka
11 Escuela de Tecnología Médica, Universidad Santo Tomás, Sede Temuco, Manuel Rodríguez 060, Temuco
12 Instituto de Microbiología Clínica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Austral de Chile, Los Laureles s/n, Isla Teja, Valdivia
5090000, Chile

* e-mail: hugo.madrid@gmail.com

Madrid H., Gené J., Quijada L., Cantillo T., Gacitúa R., Valdés J., Sánchez C., Prenafeta-Boldú F., Wijayawardene N., Silva V. &
Godoy P. (2023) Exophiala atacamensis sp. nov. and E. crusticola from the Atacama Desert, northern Chile. – Sydowia 75: 181–192.
In the course of a taxonomic survey on hyphomycetes from the Atacama Desert, four strains of slow-growing, cycloheximidetolerant
dematiaceous fungi were obtained from soil samples. These isolates presented a blastic conidiogenous apparatus and
yeast-like budding cells typical of the genus Exophiala. DNA sequence analyses of the internal transcribed spacer region and
partial large subunit ribosomal RNA gene revealed the presence of a novel species, Exophiala atacamensis, and a new record, E.
crusticola. Exophiala atacamensis is phylogenetically distant from other members of Exophiala and is morphologically characterized
by the production of annellidic conidiogenous cells, aseptate conidia in slimy masses, yeast-like budding cells, and abundant
brown, meristematic, thick-walled bodies. This study reports E. crusticola for the first time in the Southern Hemisphere.

Keywords: Black yeasts, Chaetothyriales, Herpotrichiellaceae, phylogeny, taxonomy. – 1 new species.