• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.133-136
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• 2015

We investigated endophytic fungi diversity of two Pinaceae species (Pinus densiflora, Pinus rigida) and one Cupressaceae species (Juniperus rigida) on Mt. Seodae, Korea. In total, 34 isolates were obtained from 19 host plants and identified according to internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. As a result, they were placed in 13 taxa. Among them, 52.9% belonged to Leotiomycetes, 32.3% belonged to Sordariomycetes, 5.8% belonged to Agaricomycetes, and 3.0% for isolates belonged to either Eurotiomycetes, Dothideomycetes or Ustilaginomycetes. In particular, Lophodermium growing in pine would be an especially important instance of biodiversity for endophytes, suggesting that further study examining its ecological function in the environment is critical.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.259-283
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• 2021

We isolated nine fungal strains from different environmental materials collected from different locations during a survey of fungal diversity in Korea. Using molecular phylogenetic analyses and morphological characteristics, nine previously undescribed strains were identified and assigned to the species Collariella robusta, Fusicolla acetilerea, Hongkongmyces pedis, Hongkongmyces snookiorum, Mariannaea fusiformis, Metarhizium pemphigi, Pallidocercospora crystallina, Scopulariopsis candida, and Volutella citrinella. Diverse environmental samples may thus be a promising source for isolating and investigating novel fungal species, thus sampling efforts should be increased in future studies. This study also reports identification of some rare fungal species belonging to the genera Hongkongmyces and Pallidocercospora from Korea.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.1-29
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• 2022

Hypocreales is one of the largest orders within the class Sordariomycetes in Ascomycota. Several species of this order are cosmopolitan and have a broad range of habitats. Here, we isolated several fungal strains from environmental samples, including freshwater sediment and plant litter. The strains were identified via molecular and phylogenetic analyses of rDNA and other DNA markers, such as TUB, RPB2, and EF1. The morphological characteristics of the fungi were investigated using microscopy, and culture characteristics were assessed from their growth on several media. We identified 17 species previously unrecorded in Korea: Dactylonectria hordeicola, Flavocillium bifurcatum, Fusarium luffae, Ilyonectria ilicicola, Ilyonectria qitaiheensis, Ilyonectria robusta, Lecanicillium aphanocladii, Nectria ulmicola, Neonectria lugdunensis, Ovicillium oosporum, Pseudonectria foliicola, Sarocladium spinificis, Scolecofusarium ciliatum, Trichoderma appalachiense, Trichoderma subviride, Trichoderma taiwanense, and Trichoderma tsugarense.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.7-10
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• 2012

Endophytic fungi were isolated from the roots of halophytes, Suaeda japonica and Carex scabrifolia in the Suncheonbay. The ITS region in rDNA of 15 endophytic fungal strains were amplified using PCR with universal primers ITS1 and ITS4, and those amplified fragments were sequenced. Based on ITS sequence, five fungal genera were identified in S. japonica and seven fungal genera were identified in C. scabrifolia. The Shannon's diversity index (H') of endophytic fungi isolated from S. japonica and C. scabrifolia was 1.561 and 1.889, respectively. In phylogenetic analysis, it was shown that Ascomycota and Pezizomycotina was widely distributed both in S. japonica and C. scabrifolia. Also, Sordariomycetes, Dothideomycetes and Eurotiomycetes were shown to be distributed in these halophytes used in this experiment.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.113-117
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• 2016

The biodiversity of endophytic fungi on Thuja koraiensis in Mt. Hwaak, Seorak, and Hambaek, Korea was investigated. For the 202 isolates collected from the host trees, internal transcribed spacer rDNA region sequences-based analysis identified 32 taxa; 61.5% of the isolates belonged to Dothideomycetes, 27.0% belonged to Sordariomycetes, and 11.5% belonged to Leotiomycetes. This composition rate is somewhat different from that reported in previous studies for endophytic fungi inhabiting trees of the family Pinaceae. In particular, Phyllosticta spinarum in Dothideomycetes is a dominant species among the diverse endophytes of T. koraiensis. Therefore, further critical research is required for this species.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.251-271
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• 2020

Diversity and community composition of bulb-associated fungi of Fritillaria Cirrhosae Bulbus source plants, which are used in traditional chinese medicine, in the eastern Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains, southwestern China, were estimated based on the internal transcribed spacer rDNA sequence analysis, using host plant species, geographic area, and plant phenology as variables. A total of 1,486 fungal sequences assigned to 251 operational taxonomical units (OTUs) were obtained from the bulbs. Fungal OTUs comprised 96.41% Ascomycotina, 3.52% Basidiomycotina, and 0.07% Zygomycotina. Sordariomycetes, Hypocreales, and Nectriaceae were the most frequent fungal lineages at each taxonomic rank. Fusarium, Ilyonectria, Tetracladium, Leptodontidium, and Tomentella were the top OTU-rich genera. Fusarium sp. 03, Ilyonectria rufa, Fusarium sp. 08, Ilyonectria sp. 03, and Leptodontidium orchidicola 03 represented the most frequent OTUs. Fusarium spp. were the most frequent general taxa. The distribution of fungal community exhibited preferences for host plant species, geographic area, and plant phenology. These findings are the foundation of our research on culturing and active metabolites of bulb-associated fungi of Fritillaria Cirrhosae Bulbus source plants.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.408-418
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• 2021

The diversity and plant growth-promoting ability of fungal endophytes that are associated with five halophytic plant species (Phragmites australis, Suaeda australis, Limonium tetragonum, Suaeda glauca Bunge, and Suaeda maritima) growing in the Buan salt marsh on the west coast of South Korea have been explored. About 188 fungal strains were isolated from these plant samples' roots and were then studied with the use of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2). The endophytic fungal strains belonged to 33 genera. Alternaria (18%) and Fusarium (12.8%), of the classes Dothideomycetes and Sordariomycetes, were most rampant in the coastal salt marsh plants. There was a higher diversity in fungal endophytes that are isolated from S. glauca Bunge than in isolates from other coastal salt marsh plants. Plant growth-promoting experiments with the use of Waito-C rice seedlings show that some of the fungal strains could encourage a more efficient growth than others. Furthermore, gibberellins (GAs) GA1, GA3, and GA9 were seen in the Sa-1-4-3 isolate (Acrostalagmus luteoalbus) culture filtrate with a gas chromatography/mass spectrometry.

• Mycobiology
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.12-19
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• 2022

Paramyrothecium eichhorniae sp. nov. was observed and collected from Chiang Mai and Phetchaburi Provinces, Thailand. This new species is introduced based on morphological and molecular evidence. This fungus is characterized by its production of sporodochium conidiomata with a white setose fringe surrounding an olivaceous green to dark green slimy mass of conidia, penicillately branched conidiophores, and aseptate and cylindrical to ellipsoid conidia. Phylogenetic analyses of combined LSU rDNA, ITS rDNA, tef1, rpb2, tub2 and cmdA sequence data using maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian approaches placed the fungus in a strongly supported clade with other Paramyrothecium species in Stachybotryaceae (Hypocreales, Sordariomycetes). The descriptions of the species are accompanied by illustrations of morphological features, and a discussion of the related taxa is presented.

• Mycobiology
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.55-65
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• 2022

Lichen is a symbiotic mutualism of mycobiont and photobiont that harbors diverse organisms including endolichenic fungi (ELF). Despite the taxonomic and ecological significance of ELF, no comparative investigation of an ELF community involving isolation of a pure culture and high-throughput sequencing has been conducted. Thus, we analyzed the ELF community in Parmotrema tinctorum by culture and metabarcoding. Alpha diversity of the ELF community was notably greater in metabarcoding than in culture-based analysis. Taxonomic proportions of the ELF community estimated by metabarcoding and by culture analyses showed remarkable differences: Sordariomycetes was the most dominant fungal class in culture-based analysis, while Dothideomycetes was the most abundant in metabarcoding analysis. Thirty-seven operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were commonly observed by culture-and metabarcoding-based analyses but relative abundances differed: most of common OTUs were underrepresented in metabarcoding. The ELF community differed in lichen segments and thalli in metabarcoding analysis. Dissimilarity of ELF community intra lichen thallus increased with thallus segment distance; inter-thallus ELF community dissimilarity was significantly greater than intra-thallus ELF community dissimilarity. Finally, we tested how many fungal sequence reads would be needed to ELF diversity with relationship assays between numbers of lichen segments and saturation patterns of OTU richness and sample coverage. At least 6000 sequence reads per lichen thallus were sufficient for prediction of overall ELF community diversity and 50,000 reads per thallus were enough to observe rare taxa of ELF.

• Mycobiology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.79-86
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• 2023

In this study, fungal strains designated as KNUF-22-14A and KNUF-22-15A were isolated from soil samples in Korea. These two strains were identified based on cultural and morphological characteristics as well as phylogenetic analyses and were found to be morphologically and phylogenetically identical. Upon their morphological comparison with closely related species, such as Tolypocladium album, T. amazonense, T. endophyticum, T. pustulatum, and T. tropicale, a difference in the size of short phialides [0.6-2.4(-9.3)×0.8-1.4 ㎛] was observed. Meanwhile, these strains had larger conidia (1.2-3.0×1.2-3.0 ㎛) than T. album, T. amazonense, T. endophyticum, and T. tropicale and smaller conidia than T. pustulatum. Phylogenetic analyses using a multi-locus datasets based on ITS, LSU, and SSU showed that KNUF-22-14A and KNUF-22-15A formed a distinct cluster from previously identified Tolypocladium species. Thus, these fungal strains isolated from soil in Korea are proposed as a novel species according to their characteristics and are named Tolypocladium globosum sp. nov.