We conducted a species diversity study of the hypogeous Ascomycetes of Israel. The hypogeous Ascomycetes in Israel include members of the families Pyronemataceae, Pezizaceae, and Tuberaceae, which are represented by seven species: Hydnocystis piligera, Terfezia arenaria, T. claveryi, T. oligosperma, Tirmania africana, Tuber asa, and T. nitidum; only T. asa is new to Israeli mycobiota. Synonymy, locations, collection data, general distribution, distribution in Israel, descriptions, a key to identification, illustrations, and taxonomic remarks are provided.
Ascomycota ; Humans ; Israel ; Mycorrhizae

Cladonia peziziformis (With.) J.R. Laundon was collected from Baega mountain, Jeonnam Province, Korea in 2008. It is characterized by short and slender podetia with verruculose surface, split along the sides. Apothecia large, pale brown, always growing on the top of the podetia. Primary squamules shell-like, thick, and convex. Fumarprotocetraric acid contained in thallus. This is the first record of this species in Korea.
Ascomycota ; Fumarates ; Korea

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is a typical necrotrophic plant pathogenic fungus that distributes worldwide and causes severe diseases on a broad-range of plant species. Studies on S. sclerotiorum have been mainly focused on biology and pathology. The development of high-throughput technologies enabled multi-omics approaches for systems biology. This review summarizes current researches on S. sclerotiorum and proposes systemic strategies for understanding its biology and pathology, to provide novel insights and references for further investigation on molecular biology and pathogenesis of the pathogenic fungi and the pathosystems.
Ascomycota ; Plant Diseases ; Plants

Biochemical variability among 20 Indian isolates of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum collected from different hosts/soil samples from different localities in India is reported. High Performance Liquid Chromatographic (HPLC) analysis of ethyl acetate fraction of culture filtrate, mycelia, sclerotia and sclerotial exudate showed 15~23 peaks but only 11 could be identified. They were tannic, gallic, oxalic, caffeic, vanillic, ferulic, O-coumeric, chlorogenic, cinnamic, salicylic and gentisic acids. The amount of phenolic compounds varied among the culture filtrates, mycelia, sclerotia and sclerotial exudates of S. sclerotiorum.
Ascomycota* ; Exudates and Transudates ; India ; Phenol

Field studies were conducted over two seasons during the summers of 1997 and 1998 to investigate the effects of different spatial arrangements(random or highly aggregated) of sclerotia of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and alginate pellet types(bran or polyethylene glycol) on colonization of sclerotia by Trichoderma spp. Treatment with alginate pellets increased the mean percentages of sclerotia colonized by Trichoderma spp. in both years. Distribution patterns of sclerotia affected the mean percentage of sclerotia colonized by Trichoderma spp. in both years, indicating that a highly aggregated distribution of sclerotia was more favorable to colonization by Trichoderma spp. The effects of the different pellet types(bran or PEG) were not siginificant in both years(P>0.05). The application of higher densities(200 pellets per 1 m2) of alginate pellets resulted in higher mean percentages of sclerotia colonized by Trichoderma spp. in 1998(p<0.05), but did not in 1997.
Ascomycota* ; Colon* ; Polyethylene ; Seasons ; Trichoderma*

The lichenicolous fungi flora of South Korea is poorly known. During recent field trips to various parts of South Korea and after an extensive examination of herbarium lichen specimens, we encountered a lichenicolous fungi growing over a thallus of the lichen Ochrolechia yasudae Vain., characterized by small black apothecia with mostly three-septate brown ascospores. It was identified as Dactylospora glaucomarioides. This is the first report of this lichenicolous fungus from South Korea. A taxonomic description and comments are presented.
Ascomycota ; Fungi ; Lichens ; Republic of Korea

We performed a taxonomic study on two species of the genus Bryoria from the Sino-Himalayas, SW-China. B. nadvornikiana is new to China and B. furcellata is new to Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in the Sino-Himalayas. Morphology, habitat, distributions and chemistry of the two species are discussed.
Ascomycota* ; Chemistry ; China ; Ecosystem ; Lichens

The genus Hypomyces contains fungi that grow on mushrooms, including agarics, boletes, and Aphyllophorales. While 53 Hypomyces species have been reported worldwide, only one was in Korea. In this study, two new Korean species were identified as H. luteovirens and H. tubariicola based on morphology and internal transcribed spacer sequencing.
Agar ; Agaricales ; Ascomycota* ; Fungi ; Korea* ; Polyporales

While studying Bombyx mori "Zipnuae" inoculated with an entomopathogenic fungus, Paecilomyces tenuipes, a mycoparasitic hymenoascomycete with a long neck was isolated from the silkworm rearing room. The fungus was identified as Syspastospora parasitica which has been recognized as a hyperparasite on various moniliaceous hyphomycetes. A descriptive illustration is presented in this study.
Ascomycota* ; Bombyx* ; Fungi* ; Mitosporic Fungi ; Neck ; Paecilomyces*

We encountered an unfamiliar ascomycete fruiting body, fitting characteristics of the genus Kretzschmaria, which features in a stipitate ascigerous stroma with carbonaceous interior and disintegrating perithecia. In this study, we report and characterize a new species of the decaying fungus. Compared to other species, one of the notable features of this specimen (TPML150908-046) is its stromatal size (up to 15 cm). Although TPML150908-046 is morphologically similar to K. milleri and K. sandvicensis, it differs sharply from both species in apical ring size (TPML150908-046, 6.5~10.5 µm; K. milleri, 11~16 µm) and ascospore width (TPML150908-046, 10.5~17 µm; K. sandvicensis, 8.5~11.5 µm). Phylogenetic trees based on β-tubulin, ITS, and RPB2 sequences showed that our collection clustered with K. sandvicensis, with the respective similarities for these sequences being 95.6%, 91.3%, and 97.7%, signifying it as another species. With these results, we report it as a new species, which we call Kretzschmaria quercicola sp. nov.
Ascomycota ; Classification ; Fruit ; Fungi* ; Korea* ; Phylogeny ; Trees