Amanita Pers. is a well-known monophyletic mushroom genus with a broad distribution. The genus comprises about 500 named taxa and contains deadly poisonous species, e.g. A. virosa and A. phalloides. Nonetheless, the diversity of Korean Amanita species has been underestimated. At present ca. 50 species of genus Amanita have been reported and distributed in Korea. It caused mainly three problems: 1) identification is not clarify because of the morphological investigation only; 2) poor morphological descriptions of the species; 3) absence of evidence specimens in many case of the recorded Korean Amanita species. For these reasons, the goals of the present study were to establish the accurate classification systems and to understand the diversity of Korean Amanita species. Macro-morphological characters were determined based on structures of basidiomata (universal veil on the pileus, partial veil, volva etc.), field notes and color photos of basidiocarps. Micro-morphological characters (basidiospores, basidia, composition of volval remnants on pileus and stipe base etc.) were obtained from the dried specimens after sectioning and rehydration using optical microscope. For the molecular identification, four gene regions(nrITS, nrLSU, rpb2 and tef1) were sequenced from Korean Amanita species. Among the sequenced specimens, I selected 80 specimens (which were successfully sequenced as ITS, nLSU, rpb2 and tef1) to generate the outline of Amanita phylogeny including 2 subgenera and 7 sections for determination of exact phylogenetic positions and comparison between related species. As a result of 11 data sets of each subgenus and complexes, 68 species were represented including new to Korea and candidates of new to sciences. The protein coding genes were helpful to determine the grouping within a related species and/or complex groups rather than rDNA sequences regions.

• Jong Won Jo(Forest Biodiversity Division, Korea National Arboretum)