ORIGINAL PAPER Coniochaeta polymorpha, a new species from endotracheal aspirate of a preterm neonate, and transfer of Lecythophora species to Coniochaeta Ziauddin Khan • Josepa Gene ´ • Suhail Ahmad • Josep Cano • Noura Al-Sweih • Leena Joseph • Rachel Chandy • Josep Guarro Received: 7 March 2013 / Accepted: 28 May 2013 / Published online: 9 June 2013 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 Abstract A new species of Coniochaeta from endotracheal secretion of a preterm neonate, Conio- chaeta polymorpha, is described. This anamorphic species is characterized by development of dark brown colonies after 1 week of incubation on culture medium, formation of abundant yeast-like cells and sclerotium-like structures producing discrete, brown, nearly globose phialidic conidiogenous cells and absence of chlamydospores. A combined sequence dataset of the ITS region, partial LSU rDNA, actin and b-tubulin genes sufficiently resolved the unique phy- logenetic status of this species. In response to recent changes in the nomenclature for pleomorphic fungi, we transfer the Lecythophora species to Coniochaeta, and propose the following new combinations: Conio- chaeta canina, Coniochaeta cateniformis, Coniocha- eta decumbens, Coniochaeta fasciculata, Coniochaeta hoffmannii, Coniochaeta lignicola, Coniochaeta lute- orubra, Coniochaeta luteoviridis and Coniochaeta mutabilis. Keywords Coniochaetales Á Clinical source Á Lecythophora Á Ribosomal DNA Á Single-copy genes Á Taxonomy Introduction Lecythophora Nannf. is an anamorphic genus of the family Coniochaetaceae (Coniochaetales, Ascomy- cota). The members of the genus are characterized by having pink salmon to dark brown colonies and intercalary conidiogenous cells with distinct colla- rettes (Checa et al. 1988; Damm et al. 2010). The genus currently comprises nine species and several unnamed species as anamorphs of Coniochaeta (Sacc.) Cooke (Weber 2002; Damm et al. 2010; Guarro et al. 2012). These fungi are usually isolated from wood, water and food (Checa et al. 1988; Weber 2002; Weber et al. 2002), although two of them, L. hoffmannii (J.F.H. Beyma) W. Gams and McGinnis and L. mutabilis (J.F.H. Beyma) W. Gams and McGinnis, are also known to be human pathogens, mainly associated with keratitis, subcutaneous abscesses, peritonitis and endocarditis (de Hoog et al. 2000). However, several new species from human and veterinary origins have been reported recently (Perdomo et al. 2013; Troy et al. 2013). Since January 2013, the dual nomenclature of pleomorphic fungi is no longer allowed (Norvell 2011; Hawksworth 2011); therefore, for fungi like these that have traditionally been classified into two different Z. Khan (&) Á S. Ahmad Á N. Al-Sweih Á L. Joseph Á R. Chandy Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, Safat, P.O. Box 24923, Kuwait City, Kuwait e-mail: zkhan@hsc.edu.kw J. Gene ´ Á J. Cano Á J. Guarro Mycology Unit, IISPV & Medical School, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Sant Llorenc ¸ 21, 43201 Reus, Spain 123 Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (2013) 104:243–252 DOI 10.1007/s10482-013-9943-z