First report of six Sordariomycetes fungi isolated from plant litter in freshwater ecosystems of Korea

Jaeduk Goh^1,* Hye Yeon Mun¹ Yu-Jeong Jeon¹ Namil Chung¹ Young-Hwan Park¹ Sangkyu Park¹ Hyejin Hwang¹ Wonsu Cheon¹

¹Fungi Research Team, Nakdonggang National Institute of Biological Resources, Sangju 37242, Korea

Abstract

Freshwater ecosystems provide a complex environment for microorganisms. In this study, we isolated diverse fungal strains from plant litter in freshwaters. These strains were identified using molecular phylogenetic analyses of rDNA and/or other gene sequences (TUB, GAPDH, and EF1). In addition, we examined their morphological characteristics by microscopy and cultural characteristics on several media. We identified six previously unrecorded Sordariomycetes species in Korea, i.e., Colletotrichum godetiae, Discosia rubi, Robillarda sessilis, Monochaetia dimorphospora, Idriella lunata, and Phialemoniopsis endophytica. Of these, D. rubi and M. dimorphospora exhibited high extracellular amylase, lipase, and protease activities, suggesting that these fungal isolates might play an important role as decomposers in freshwater ecosystems. Plant litter could thus be a good source for isolating and investigating previously undocumented fungal species in freshwater environments.

Figures & Tables

Fig. 1. Phylogenetic tree of NNIBRFG18 and related species, based on maximum-likelihood analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rDNA sequences. The sequence of Microdochium seminicola was used as an outgroup. Numbers at the nodes indicate the bootstrap values (>50%) from 1,000 replications. The bar indicates the number of substitutions per position. New isolate from the present study is shown in red.