Newly Discovered Fungal Species from Black Pepper Marketed in Brazil: Penicillium pipericola sp. nov. and Syncephalastrum brasiliense sp. nov.

Black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) has historically been among the most consumed spices globally. Brazil is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters, and is the largest in the Western Hemisphere. This study describes two new fungal species associated with black pepper commercialized in Brazil. The first, Penicillium pipericola sp. nov., belongs to the subgenus Penicillium, section Paradoxa, series Atramentosa. The second, Syncephalastrum brasiliense sp. nov., belongs to the order Mucorales, family Syncephalastraceae. The taxonomic classification of these species was supported by a pluralistic approach, based on multilocus phylogenetic analyses, morphological analyses, and metabolomics. Furthermore, the metabolomic analysis revealed considerable biosynthetic versatility of the new species under different cultivation conditions, producing metabolites with therapeutic and biotechnological potential. The identification of these species increases the understanding of fungal diversity in the black pepper production chain and may have important implications for the microbiological quality of the product, for the understanding of ecological interactions within the agroecosystem and for potential industrial applications.