Mycological Chracterization of Entomopathogenic Fungi Samsoniella sp. and Keithomyces sp. from Soils of Mt. Deogyu

Fungi belonging to the order Hypocreales are primarily entomopathogens that parasitize insects, playing crucial ecological roles such as regulating insect populations and decomposing organic matter within soil ecosystems. In this study, a fungal survey was conducted in the soils of Mt. Deogyu (Muju, Jeonbuk) to investigate the microbial diversity of Korean mountainous regions. Soil samples were diluted and strains were isolated on PDA using the dilution plating method. Among the isolates, notable cordycipitoid strains were subjected to phylogenetic analysis based on the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and large subunit (LSU) regions of the nuclear ribosomal DNA. NCBI BLAST analysis confirmed the presence of Samsoniella sp., a genus that has not yet been officially reported in South Korea, and the genus Keithomyces sp.. While Keithomyces has been previously reported in the hyphosphere soil of wild mushrooms on Jeju Island, its distribution in mainland high-altitude soils is presented for the first time through this research. Due to the limited resolution of ITS and LSU sequences for precise species-level identification, future studies will employ multi-locus phylogenetic analysis using protein-coding genes such as TEF1-α, RPB1 and RPB2, alongside soil pathogenicity tests, to clarify their exact taxonomic positions and ecological functions.