Investigation of the mating-type distribution ofRaffaelea quercus-mongolicaein South Korea

초록

Raffaelea quercus-mongolicaeis a mycangial symbiont of a wood-boring ambrosia beetle,Platypus koryoensis(Coleoptera:Curculionidae: Platypodidae), which is believed to be associated with oak mortality in South Korea. Since the first discovery of the disease in 2004, oak mortality has continued to spread across the country, and the pathogen has had a significant impact on forest ecosystems in the country; however, little is known regarding the biology of the fungus. The aim of this study was to develop markers to determine the mating types of individual isolates ofR. quercus-mongolicaecollected across the country and then determine the mating-type ratio in natural populations. To achieve this, partial sequences ofMAT1-1-3andMAT1-2-1genes were amplified using degenerate primers and cloned. The new primer sets, which were specific to each mating-type idiomorph, identified isolates asMAT1-1andMAT1-2mating types. The roughly equal frequencies of the two mating types suggest that sexual reproduction might have occurred in natural populations ofR. quercus-mongolicaein South Korea.

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