%0 Journal Article %A Fotedar, Rashmi %A Sandoval-Denis, Marcelo %A Kolecka, Anna %A Zeyara, Aisha %A Al Malki, Ameena %A Al Shammari, Hamad %A Al Marri, Masoud %A Kaul, R. %A Boekhout, Teun %T Toxicocladosporium aquimarinum sp. nov. and Toxicocladosporium qatarense sp. nov., isolated from marine waters of the Arabian Gulf surrounding Qatar %D 2019 %J International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, %V 69 %N 10 %P 2992-3000 %@ 1466-5034 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/ijsem.0.003482 %K biodiversity %K Gulf States %K marine fungi %K new species %K taxonomy %I Microbiology Society, %X The Arabian Gulf surrounding Qatar is distinct from other marine ecosystems due to its high salinity (35–75 PSU) and extreme water temperature fluctuations (11–40 °C). Furthermore, in the last decade, Qatar has been witnessing an industrial boom as well as extensive infrastructure construction activities. Marine micro-organisms, including fungi, remain largely unexplored in the Arabian Gulf. During a 3 year study, we investigated the diversity of marine fungi in coastal waters around Qatar. As a result, two new Toxicocladosporium species were isolated from the Qatari marine environment. Molecular and phylogenetic analyses of rRNA gene sequences of five loci, namely the internal transcribed spacer 1 and 2 regions and the D1/D2 domains of the large subunit rRNA, actin, RNA polymerase second largest subunit and beta-tubulin genes, were used to confirm the identity of the novel species for which we propose the names Toxicocladosporium aquimarinum sp. nov. and Toxicocladosporium qatarense sp. nov. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/ijsem/10.1099/ijsem.0.003482