A new Leptographium species associated with Tomicus piniperda infesting pine logs in Korea

During a the course of a survey of sapstaining fungi in Korea, a Leptographium was isolated from Pinus densflora and P. koraimsis logs. infested with the bark beetle Tomicus piniperda. The fungus grew optimally at 25 degrees C on 2% malt extract agar and showed a high level of tolerance to cycloheximide. The Leptographium has unusually short conidiophores and is morphologically similar to L. pini-densflorae. L. lundbergii, L. yunnanense, and the Leptographium anamorph of Ophiostonia crassivaginatum. Comparisons of DNA sequence data for three gene regions, Lis well as morphological characteristics, confirmed that this fungus represents an undescribed taxon. We consequently provide the name Leptographium koreanum sp. nov. for it here.