Re-Assessment of Strains from Section and Description of Two Unrecorded Species from Korea.

The section comprises economically significant fungi, with its teleomorphic species classified under the genus . Several species within this genus produce a variety of secondary metabolites, offering significant potential for applications in agriculture, medicine, and pharmaceuticals. In this study, 69 strains from the section , originating from Korea were taxonomically re-assessed using a combined analysis of their partial β-tubulin and Calmodulin gene sequences, supported along with morphological characteristics. The 69 strains were found to be distributed among 15 species which are now confirmed to be originally isolated from Korea. Of them, 13 species have been previously reported in Korea (, , , , , , , , , , , , and ), and two species ( and ) represent new findings for this region. This study presents a detailed characterization of these two previously unexplored species, highlighting their distinct morphological traits, gene sequence variations, and occurrence in ecological niches in Korea.