English
New Records of Four Plant-Associated Pleosporales from Freshwater Environments in Korea
Hye Jin Hwang, Hye Yeon Mun, Sangkyu Park and Jaeduk Goh*
Fungi Research Division, Biological Resources Research Department, Nakdonggang National Institute of Biological Resources, Sangju 37242, Korea
*Email: jdgoh@nnibr.re.kr
Pleosporales is a large and diverse order of filamentous fungi within the class Dothideomycetes (Ascomycota). Members of this order are commonly associated with plants and are frequently isolated from various environments, including soil, plant materials, and freshwater habitats. Species within Pleosporales have attracted attention due to their ecological roles as plant pathogens, endophytes, and saprobes, as well as their potential applications in biotechnology. In this study, four previously unrecorded Pleosporales species were isolated from freshwater environments in Korea and identified using internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence analysis. The isolates were identified as Neocucurbitaria salicis-albae NNIBRFG62017, Parafenestella alpina NNIBRFG62010, and Paraphaeosphaeria minitans NNIBRFG61988, all isolated from freshwater filter samples from the Doline wetland, and Phaeosphaeria blodgettiae NNIBRFG62654, isolated from a freshwater filter sample from Seokgwancheon. Their morphological characteristics, including colony morphology and microscopic features, were examined, and phylogenetic relationships were inferred based on ITS sequence data. All identified species represent new records for Korea. These findings expand our understanding of the diversity of plant-associated Pleosporales in freshwater environments and provide baseline data for future ecological and taxonomic studies.
