ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION A The Genus Aspergillus The aspergilli are filamentous fungi that produce asexual spores on the surface of the swollen tips of aerial stalks called conidiophores. The genus name was given by the eighteenth century biologist and priest Micheli because the conidiophore reminded him of an aspergillum, a hand-held instrument used to disperse holy water (Fig. 1). Thorn and Church (1) first systematized the genus in 1926, and the most recent (1965) compendium is that of Raper and Fennell (2). Raper and Fennell divided the genus into 18 groups based principally on the morphology and color of the spores and the spore-bearing structures. A few of the more familiar group names are Aspergillus jlavus, Aspergillus jumagatus, and Aspergillus nidulans. An isolate of the last group is the principal subject of this review.
