The diversity of cultivable endophytic fungi of the sand coast plant Ipomoea pes-caprae in Taiwan

Abstract

Ipomoea pes-caprae is a plant of sand coasts and it can tolerate stresses, such as high salinity, strong wind and sand movements and lack of nutrients. It plays an important role in coast protection and preventing erosion. Fungal endophytes show high biodiversity and have a strong influence on the survival of plants under different stress factors. Although this plant is important for sand coast ecosystems, little is known about the associated fungi. In this study, we isolated and identified endophytic fungi of Ipomoea pes-caprae, a dominant plant along the shore of Taiwan. The dataset contains 896 records, which correspond to 177 species. The geographical scope of the dataset covers the northern subtropical area of the main island of Taiwan, with its sand coasts in New Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Taichung and two botanical gardens in Taipei and Taichung. The detailed original data of fungal diversity are rarely publicly shared under strictly formalised and, thus, reusable standards. As an example for such an approach, the complete occurrence dataset was made available in the Darwin Core Archive format via the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) under Version 1.13, Taiwan Biodiversity Information Facility (TaiBIF) https://doi.org/10.15468/9h9rcg. In this first data paper on endophytic fungi, the scientific name and associated DNA sequence in the dataset were directly linked to other free online resource (Index Fungorum, GenBank), which shows the potential of GBIF for linking together different online data repositories. We describe a dataset, in which the diversity of endophytic fungi of the sand coast plant Ipomoea pes-caprae in Taiwan was investigated.