Distinction between Beauveria and Tolypocladium by carbohydrate utilization

The utilization profile of 49 carbohydrates, based on API 50 CH biochemical tests, was used for the identification and the discrimination of 75 isolates of Beauveria and Tolypocladium. The data were used to construct a most parsimonious tree in which Beauveria and Tolypocladium were separated into two main branches. Although the Beauveria isolates could not be separated at the species level, eight different clusters corresponding to the eight Tolypocladium species studied were revealed. The reproducible carbohydrate utilization profiles of B. bassiana, B. brongniartii, T. cylindrosporum, T. niveum, T. geodes and T. tundrense have permitted the construction of an identification key that could serve as a tool to complement the morphological description of selected Beauveria and Tolypocladium isolates for their correct identification at the species level. The API 50 CH method is time-saving and can complement effectively more classical techniques for the discrimination between Beauveria and Tolypocladium and for the taxonomy of Tolypocladium at the species level.