A New Record of Epicoccum draconis Isolated from the Soil in Korea

Benjamin Yaw  Ayim1   Kallol  Das1   Young-Je  Cho2   Seung-Yeol  Lee1,3,*   Hee-Youn Jung1,3   

1School of Applied Biosciences, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea
2Institute of Plant Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea

Abstract

A fungal isolate US-18-11 was isolated from the soil in Uiseong, Korea. The mycelium growth measured after 7 days of incubation at 22℃ on malt extract agar (MEA) and oatmeal agar (OA) media was 42-43 mm and 41-44 mm in diameter, respectively. The fungal colony formed white to dull green aerial mycelia that were floccose with regular margins and olivaceous black with leaden gray patches on the reverse side. The conidia were hyaline to brown in color, ellipsoidal to ovoid, guttulate, abundant, globose, solitary, or confluent measuring 3.2-7.2×1.1-2.3 μm. A BLAST search of the large subunit (LSU), internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, second largest subunit of DNA-directed RNA polymerase II (rpb2) and β-tubulin (TUB2) gene sequences revealed that the isolate US-18-11 has similarities of 99, 100, 97, and 99% with those of Epicoccum draconis CBS 186.83, respectively. A neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree constructed based on the concatenated dataset of above-mentioned sequences showed that isolate US-18-11 clustered with Epicoccum draconis CBS 186.83 in the same clade. Based on the results of morphological, cultural, and phylogenetic analysis, the isolate US-18-11 was identical to the previously described E. draconis CBS 186.83. To our knowledge, this is the first report of E. draconis in Korea.

Figures & Tables

Fig. 1. Cultural and morphological characteristics of US-18-11. A, B, colony on malt extract agar, front and reverse sides, respectively; C, D, colony on oatmeal agar, front and reverse sides, respectively; E, pycnidium; F, conidia. Scale bar G=50 μm; H=10 μm.