First Report and Characterization of Pestalotiopsis ellipsospora Causing Canker on Acanthopanax divaricatus

Acanthopanax divaricatus, a member of the Araliaceae family, has been used as an invigorant in traditional Korean medicine. During disease monitoring, a stem with small, irregular, brown lesions was sampled at a farm in Cheonan in 2011. The symptoms seen were sunken cankers and reddish-brown needles on the infected twig. The isolated fungal colonies were whitish, having crenated edges and aerial mycelium on the surface, and with black gregarious fruiting bodies. The reverse plate was creamy white. Conidia were 17~22 × 3.5~4.2 µm, fusiform, 4-septate, and straight to slightly curved. The nucleotide sequence of the partial translation elongation factor 1 alpha gene of the fungal isolate, shares 99% sequence identity with that of known Pestalotiopsis ellipsospora. Based on the results of the morphological and molecular analyses, the fungal isolate was identified as P. ellipsospora. In Korea, this is the first report of canker on A. divaricatus.

Molecular Identification of Trichoderma reesei

Fungi comprise one of the most diverse groups of eukaryotes with many cryptic species that are difficult to identify. In this chapter, we detail a protocol for the molecular identification of the most industrially relevant species of Trichoderma-T. reesei. We first describe how a single spore culture should be isolated and used for the sequencing of the diagnostic fragment of the tef1 gene. Then, we provide two alternative methods that can be used for molecular identification and offer the diagnostic oligonucleotide hallmark of the tef1 sequence that is present in sequences of all T. reesei strains known to date and that is therefore suitable for reliable and straightforward identification.