Using pectic zymogram technique to identify interspecies variation of some Penicillium species

Penicillium is a genous of Hyphomycetes (a group of Deuteromycetes) and was created by Link in 1809. This fungi with 150 recognized species has a worldwide distribution. The world-wide distribution and the importance of the role of the genus in human life are the reasons that make the identification of the species of this genus important. Some Penicillium species are responsible for hard disease. Because of producing a wide varity of enzymes، the species of this genus are important elements in industry and agriculture. Basically the morphological characters use to identify the species of Penicillium، but such identification is time consuming and lack of high accuracy. During last two decades using molecular and biochemical techniques have been vastly used in fungal species identification including Penicillium. In this study pectic zymogram technique was used to identify Penicillium species and inter-specific variations. Based on obtained zymogram patterns it seems that this technique is quick and more reliable than using morphological characters to distinguish different species.