New risk assessment by the ZKBS on an Aspergillus species

Aspergillus pseudoterreus is a Ascomycete from the family Aspergillaceae, which is ubiquitous in soils and on plants. The fungus has been used industrially for decades, among other things, for the production of itaconic acid. Until 2011, A. pseudoterreus, the morphologically very similar species Aspergillus terreus assigned. A. terreus In turn, it was classified in risk group 2 by the Central Commission for Biological Safety (ZKBS) in 2009 (ref. 6790-05-03-45). Due to the high morphological similarity, individual A. terreus strains were only correctly identified as A. after sequencing. pseudoterreus Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that further clinical and Environmental isolates due to lack of Genome data have been or are incorrectly assigned to the species A. terreus. For A. pseudoterreus, there are only isolated reports in the medical literature of human infections. The pathogenic potential is based, among other things, on the production of Mycotoxins . Current data from infection experiments on larvae of the large Wax moth indicate that the pathogenic potential of A. pseudoterreus is just as high as that of A. terreus. According to Section 5 Paragraph 1 GenTSV in conjunction with the criteria in Annex 1 GenTSV, A. pseudoterreus is accepted by the ZKBS as a donor and recipient organism for genetic engineering work by Risk group 2 This classification is based on the fact that A. pseudoterreus for immunocompetent individuals. It cannot be ruled out that documented human infections in the past were mistakenly diagnosed with A. terreus which were actually caused by A. pseudoterreus.

The complete ZKBS statement can be found at File number 45243.0127 can be retrieved.