Paraconiothyrium kelleni: An Unreported Fungal Species Isolated from Soil in Korea

Paraconiothyrium kelleni: An Unreported Fungal Species Isolated from Soil in Korea

Jin-Sil Choi1,2, Mukesh Kumar Yadav1, Kallol Das1, Jung-Joo Ryu1, Seong-Keun Lim1, Song-Woon Nam1,2, Seung-Yeol Lee1,2, and Hee-Young Jung1,2*

1College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea

2 Department of Plant Protection and Quarantine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea

*Email: heeyoung@knu.ac.kr

In this study, a fungal strain designated as KNUF-21-66Q1 was isolated from soil samples in Chungcheongbuk province, Korea. Cultural and morphological characteristics of the strain KNUF-21-66Q1 were similar through using different media potato dextrose agar, oatmeal agar, malt extract agar, and cornmeal agar with the previously identified Paraconiothyrium kelleni (CBS 149290T). Different parameters like growth, colony color, and shape were observed on each media to compare the reference strain P. kelleni. Conidiomata were solitary or clustered, pycnidial, subglobose to globose, soft, black–brown with a diameter of 300–500 µm, and pycnidium had a thick wall observed after 5–6 weeks. Additionally, conidiogenous cells were hyaline, smooth, ampulliform to globose, measuring 6.0–9.0×3.0–6.0 µm in diameter (n=15). The conidia were hyaline, slightly golden when matured, smooth, guttulate, and 3.0–4.7×2.1–3.3 µm (n=100). The phylogenetic analyses were also supported by using the internal transcribed spacer regions, the partial 28S rDNA large subunit, and β-tubulin gene sequences and the concatenated nucleotide sequences showed the strain KNUF-21-66Q1 was closely clustered with the previously identified P. kelleni (CBS 149290T). To our knowledge, this is the newly recorded P. kelleni from soil in Korea.