Morphological and phylogenetic analyses of an unreported species Diatrype rubi isolated from soil in Korea

The fungal strain KNUF-21-015 was isolated from soil in Palgongsan, Daegu-si, Gyeongbuk province in Korea, and identified as a previously unreported species within the family Diatrypaceae. Observations of conidiogenous cells, pycnidia, and conidia were conducted, and morphological differences between strain KNUF-21-015 and closely related species were compared. As the asexual morph of this species had not been documented previously, phylogenetic analyses were performed using concatenated nucleotide sequences from the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions and β-tubulin (TUB) gene to elucidate its identity and evolutionary relationships. The results placed the strain within the genus Diatrype, with high sequence similarities of 99.8 and 99.0% to D. rubi GMB0429T for the ITS regions and TUB gene, respectively. Phylogenetic and morphological evidence collectively support the identification of the strain KNUF-21-015 as the asexual morph of D. rubi. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of D. rubi and its anamorph in Korea.