Mitrula aurea sp. nov., A New Aero-Aquatic Species from the Republic of Korea

Sung-Eun Cho; Hyung So Kim; Young-Nam Kwag; Dong-Hyeon Lee; Jae-Gu Han; Chang Sun Kim

doi:10.1080/12298093.2022.2097770

Mitrula aurea sp. nov., A New Aero-Aquatic Species from the Republic of Korea

Mycobiology. 2022 Aug 3;50(4):213-218. doi: 10.1080/12298093.2022.2097770. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Sung-Eun Cho¹, Hyung So Kim¹, Young-Nam Kwag¹, Dong-Hyeon Lee², Jae-Gu Han³, Chang Sun Kim¹

Affiliations

¹ Forest Biodiversity Division, Korea National Arboretum, Pocheon, South Korea.
² Divison of Forest Insect Pests and Diseases, National Institute of Forest Science, Seoul, South Korea.
³ Mushroom Research Division, National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science, Rural Development Administration, Eumseong, South Korea.

Abstract

The genus Mitrula (Mitrulaceae, Helotiales), as also known as swamp beacons, inhabits submerged, decaying vegetation in standing or decaying needles, twigs, leaves, and shallow water. They play an important role in carbon cycling in some freshwater ecosystems. In the herbarium of the Korea National Arboretum (KH), seven Mitrula specimens were collected during mushroom forays in the period from 2019 to 2021. The Korean collections were found to be macromorphologically closely related to M. paludosa and M. elegans, but micromorphologically they could be distinguished by characteristics of slightly narrower asci and aseptate ascospores. Our molecular phylogenetic analyses of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and 28S rDNA regions also revealed that our specimens were related to M. paludosa and M. elegans, but formed a distinct clade. Based on these results, we reported our specimens as new to science and discussed the phylogeny and diversity of Mitrula species.

Keywords: Aero-aquatic; Helotiales; Mitrula; new species; phylogeny.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by a research fund from the Korea National Arboretum (Project No.: KNA1-1-25, 19-2) and the Research Program of Agricultural Science and Technology Development (PJ01437001) of the National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science.