First Report of Varicosporellopsis shangrilaensis Isolated from Soil in Korea

The fungal strain designated as KNUF-21-033 was isolated from a soil sample collected in Gunwi-gun, Daegu, Korea. It resembled Varicosporellopsis shangrilaensis in morphological characteristics, including colony color and the shapes of macroconidia and microconidia. The colonies formed white and cottony mycelium on potato dextrose agar (PDA). The conidiophores were erect, septate, and either unbranched or branched at the base, measuring 21.5–53.5 × 2.5–5.1 µm. The macroconidia and microconidia measured 13.7–22.6 × 3.8–6.9 µm and 4.0–8.8 × 3.5–7.1 µm, respectively. The obtained sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions and the 28S large subunit (LSU) of the ribosomal RNA, β-tubulin (TUB), and actin (ACT) genes of isolate KNUF-21-033 exhibited high similarity to strains CGMCC 3.21000 and KLF 01 of V. shangrilaensis. The topology of the maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree constructed using the concatenated ITS, LSU, TUB, and ACT sequences confirmed the affiliation of KNUF-21-033 with V. shangrilaensis. Morphological observations and phylogenetic analyses indicated that KNUF-21-033 was indeed a V. shangrilaensis strain. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of this fungal species in Korea.