Abstract:
During a survey of putative fungal pathogens infecting oak trees in the Gangwon Province
of the Republic of Korea, a fungus resembling a Ceratocystis sp. was repeatedly isolated
from natural wounds on Quercus variabilis. Morphological comparisons and DNA sequence
comparisons based on partial b-tubulin and TEF-1a gene regions showed that the fungus
resided in a distinct lineage. This novel Ceratocystis species is described here as C. quercicola
sp. nov. This is the first novel species of Ceratocystis to be reported from Korea. A pathogenicity
test showed that it can cause lesions on inoculated trees but that it had a very low
level of aggressiveness. The discovery of this fungus suggests that additional taxa residing in
Ceratocystis are likely to be discovered in Korea in the future.
