Isolation and Characterization of Blakeslea trispora Isolated from Gut of Grasshopper and Soldier Fly Larva in Korea

Thi Thuong Thuong Nguyen1   Hyang Burm  Lee1,*   

1Division of Food Technology, Biotechnology and Agrochemistry, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Abstract

During a survey of fungal diversity in insect guts in Korea, two fungal strains, EML-PGH2 and EML-PUKI88, were isolated from the gut of grasshopper and soldier fly larvae inhabiting the bulrush plants at a pond located in the Chonnam National University Arboretum, Gwangju, Korea. Based on their morphological characteristics and a phylogenetic analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS1 and ITS2) and 5.8S rDNA sequences, the strains were identified as Blakeslea trispora. To our knowledge, the zygomycete species B. trispora has not been previously described in Korea.

Figures & Tables

Phylogenetic tree based on maximum likelihood analysis of internal transcribed rDNA sequences of EML-PUKI88 and B. EML-PGH2. was used as outgroup. Bootstrap support values of ≥ 50% are indicated at the nodes. The bar indicates the number of substitutions per position.