Diversity, community composition and phylogeny of culturable fungal endophytes of Dioscorea bulbifera L.

Abstract

Abstract The origin of endophytic symbiosis dates long back in evolutionary history. Over the period of evolution, they have established a special relationship with their host plants. The research nowadays is focused on understanding the ecology, evolution and bioactive potential of endophytes. The current study is aimed to describe the biodiversity of culturable fungal endophytes associated with Dioscorea bulbifera L. Overall, the endophytic fungal taxa belonged to two phyla, four classes, ten orders, twenty-five genera and thirty-eight species showing abundant diversity. The class Dothidiomycetes was reported to be the richest and most abundant in terms of species richness. Diversity indices demonstrated significant diversity of fungal endophytes within and between the different tissues. Moreover, fungal isolates such as, Acrocalymma medicaginis, Curvularia lycoperscii, Talaromyces macrospora, Fusarium laceratum, Paecilomyces formosus and Microascus cirrosus obtained in this study have not been reported earlier as endophytes from any plant. The endophytic fungal isolates, Nigrospora oryzae, Flavodon flavus and Talaromyces sp., have been reported first time as endophytes from D. bulbifera L. Since, the relevance of endophyte-plant interactions is still indistinct therefore, deeper understanding of these interactions at molecular and genetic level is required to be done.