A novel species of Aureobasidium (Dothioraceae) recovered from Acer pseudosieboldianum in Korea

During a routine survey to establish a fungal inventory on broad-leaf deciduous trees in forests of the country, a black yeast-like species was repeatedly isolated from leaves of Acer pseudosieboldianum. Sequence comparisons using the ITS rDNA and LSU gene regions and morphological characteristics showed that the fungus isolated in this study was resided in a distinct lineage, indicating it as a novel species of Aureobasidium. This novel species is described here as Aureobasidium acericola sp. nov. The discovery of this fungus suggests that additional taxa residing in Aureobasidium are likely to be discovered in Korea and illustrates that further surveys and research should be planned to achieve this goal in the future