Discovering fungal communities in roots of and characterising novel species and their antifungal activities.

Turf-grasses are economically important horticultural crops, which have been utilised by humans to improve the environment for more than a thousand years. Turf-grasses are widely distributed in landscapes, slopes and sport fields, such as golf courses. Endophytic fungi are a resource of unexplored fungal diversity with potential bioactive compounds. In this study, culture-independent ITS amplicon sequencing and culture-dependent isolation methods were used to reveal fungal community in roots of the turf-grass . A total of 317 OTUs were identified from root samples of by analysis of ITS amplicon reads. Fungal community was dominated by (32.45%), followed by (18.16%), unknown taxa in (14.63%) and (12.48%). During isolation, 151 endophytic fungal strains were obtained from roots of and a variety of taxa were found by ITS amplification and sequencing. Moreover, 11 endophytic fungal species were further characterised in this study, based on morphological characterisation and multi-loci phylogenetic analysis, including , a newly-recorded species in Korea and 10 novel species ( , sp. nov., , , , , , sp. nov., and ). Antifungal activities of these species were tested against the turf-grass brown patch pathogen AG2-2(IIIB), with being the best antagonist. In addition, butanol extract from mycelia of strongly inhibited AG2-2(IIIB) and . The results of this study expand the biodiversity of endophytic fungi and revealed potential biological resources for future turf-grass management and bioactive compound exploitation.