On the cover Penicillium spp. is a ubiquitous, cosmopolitan genus. It plays a key role in terrestrial environments. Identification of the species at the molecular and morphological level is laborious and may be ambiguous. Due to the insufficient ITS variability, especially in the case of species-rich genera of Ascomycota, including Penicillium, identification usually involves sequencing of other loci as well as observations of morphological features on diverse media and under various temperature conditions.

[Author: Katarzyna Patejuk]