Discovery of Novel (Backusellaceae, Mucorales) Isolated from Invertebrates and Toads in Cheongyang, Korea.

Three novel fungal species, sp. nov., . sp. nov., and . sp. nov., as well as two new records, . and . , were found in Cheongyang, Korea, during an investigation of fungal species from invertebrates and toads. All species are described here using morphological characters and sequence data from internal transcribed spacer sequences of ribosomal DNA and large subunit of the ribosomal DNA. is different from other species by producing chlamydospores. can be distinguished from other species by producing abundant yeast-like cells.   is characterized by a variable (subglobose to oblong, applanate to oval, conical and ellipsoidal to pyriform) columellae and grows well at 37 °C. Multigene phylogenetic analyses of the combined ITS and LSU rDNA sequences data generated from maximum likelihood and MrBayes analyses indicate that , . , and . form distinct lineages in the family Backusellaceae. Detailed descriptions, illustrations, phylogenetic tree, and taxonomic key to the species present in Korea are provided.