Penicillium lividum

Penicillium spinulosum is found world-wide, and is most commonly isolated from soil. P. spinulosum has also been isolated from dextrin paste, distilled water containers, cotton yarn, walnut kernels, chrome tanned leather, vinyl wall covering, paracetamol tablet, diesel fuel and emulsion paint treated with chromate. P. spinulosumis highly resistant to heavy metals, tannins and acids, and can be isolated from substrata contaminated by those materials.

Penicillium spinulosum was first discovered in 1910 by Dr. Charles Thom as a contaminant in another Penicillium culture sent to him by the German mycologist, Dr. Carl Wehmer. Classification and identification of the genus Penicillium were solely based on morphological traits before DNA sequencing was discovered. Key characteristics that are commonly involved in the grouping of P. spinulosm include vesiculate, rapid growth, spherical rough conidia and long conidiophores that projected from tangled mass of aerial hyphae. In 1949, Raper & Thom classified P. spinulosum as a member of the Penicillium section Monovertcillata due to its simple conidiospores branching pattern. In 1980, Pitt modified their classification by only including species with conidiospore stipes that are strictly or predominantly monovertcillate in the subgenus Aspergilloides, and P. spinulosm was placed under one of his newly introduced sections called Aspergilloides due to the presence of an apical swelling on the conidiophore resembling members of the genus, Aspergillus. As classification based on morphology can be problematic, the taxonomy was repeatedly studied. P. spinulosm is phenotypically similar to P. glabrum and the related species P. purpurescens and P. montanense. …