New Record of Paecilomyces niveus Isolated from Soil in Palgongsan, Korea

New Record of Paecilomyces niveus Isolated from Soil in Palgongsan, Korea

Tae-Gyeong Kim1, Seong-Keun Lim1, Chung-Hyun Lee1, So-Jeong Ye1, Seung-Yeol Lee1,2,

Leonid N. Ten2, and Hee-Young Jung1,2*

1Department of Plant Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea

2Institute of Plant Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea

*Email: heeyoung@knu.ac.kr

In 2021, a fungal strain designated as KNUF-21-026 was isolated from a soil sample collected in Palgongsan, Gunwi-gun, Gyeongbuk province in Korea. Based on BLAST search results of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions revealed that KNUF-21-026 belongs to the genus Paecilomyces. To identify the strains at the species level, sequences of the β-tubulin (BenA) and calmodulin (CaM) genes were analyzed. The amplicons obtained from each gene were 603, 409 and 531 bp, respectively. Strain KNUF-21-026 was showed 99.8%–100.0% similarity with several strains of P. niveus (CBS 100.11T, CBS 133.37, NRRL 32565, CBS 608.71 and CBS 606.71) based on the three molecular markers. Phylogenetic analysis using the concatenated dataset confirmed that strain KNUF-21-026 clustered within the P. niveus clade. Morphological characteristics of KNUF-21-026 was similar to P. niveus CBS 100.11T exhibiting thick-walled chlamydospores, phialides with a cylindrical base tapering into a slender neck, and globose to broadly ellipsoid conidia with a flattened base. Based on the cultural and morphological characteristics with phylogenetic analyses, KNUF-21-026 was identified as P. niveus. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of this species in Korea.