First report of Four Unrecorded Fungal Species Isolated from Freshwater environment in Korea

Fungi are one of the most important groups of microbes that play diverse roles in the freshwater ecosystem. Fungi perform a range of important ecological functions associated with the cycling of all major elements (e.g., C, N, P, S), and this cycling affects the structure and functions of water systems. While surveying unrecorded freshwater fungi in Korea, four fungal strains, NNIBRFG55583, NNIBRFG55647, NNIBRFG55727 and NNIBRFG61828 were isolated from freshwater environment. Each isolated strain was incubated on PDA plate by 7 days under 25℃, dark condition. Sequence of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and 28s ribosomal rRNA(28s) gene of each strain was obtained for phylogenetic analysis. After sequence obtained, BLASTn search was performed to determine the species of strains. Morphological analysis was also performed by measuring conidia size and shape. In the result, four isolated fungal strains, NNIBRFG55583, NNIBRFG55647, NNIBRFG55727 and NNIBRFG61828 were identified as Entimomentora hyalina, Neocucurbitaria unguis-hominis, Tricellula aquatica and Phaeoacremonium fraxinopennsylvanicum, respectively. With surveying of references including National species list of Korea, we confirmed that these fungal species have not been previously reported in Korea.