Diversity of endophytic mycobiota of tropical tree Tectona grandis Linn.f.: Spatiotemporal and tissue type effects

Abstract

Fungal endophytes were isolated from leaf, bark and stem of Tectona grandis Linn.f. sampled at four geographical locations in winter, summer and monsoon seasons. The recovered 5089 isolates were assigned to 45 distinct morphotypes based on morphology. The sequences of the internal transcribed spacers (ITS) of the nrDNA of some morphotypes were identical, but morphological differences were strong enough to consider these morphotypes as separate species. Forty-three morphotypes were assigned to ascomycotina and two to basidiomycotina. Ascomycotina was the predominating group with 99.7% of total isolates followed by basidiomycotina with only 0.3% of total isolates. Diaporthe (Phomopsis) species dominated the communities independently on tissue type, location or season. More than 60% of the examined tissue pieces were colonized by members of this species complex. While these endophytes are ubiquitous others were tissue or location specific. Tissue type had the strongest effect on the species evenness of the endophytic assemblage followed by geographical location and season. However, Shannon-Wiener index (H’) significantly (p ≤ 0.001) varied with all three factors i.e. season, location and tissue type. Leaves supported the highest diversity across all the seasons and locations. In conclusion, all the three factors together determined the structure of endophytic mycobiota assemblage of T. grandis.

Endophytic and Epiphytic Phyllosphere Fungal Communities Are Shaped by Different Environmental Factors in a Mediterranean Ecosystem

“…In our study, season (spring vs. autumn) was the main factor shaping fungal community composition of olive tree phyllosphere. Likewise, seasonal variations were found to affect fungal endophytic communities in phyllosphere of other plant species growing in tropical (such as Tectona grandis; [38]), temperate (such as Pinus spp. ; [39]), and in Mediterranean (such as Quercus ilex; [4,40]) areas.…”

“…[4,6,7]. On the other hand, in tropical trees the endophytic fungal richness in leaves was reported to be higher [38] or lower [43] when compared to stems. Although endophytic composition was similar in leaves and twigs, several endophytic fungal genera were found to be more correlated either with leaves or twigs, suggesting signs of organ specificity by certain genera.…”

Fungal endophyte diversity in the leaves of the medicinal plant Myracrodruon urundeuva in a Brazilian dry tropical forest and their capacity to produce L-asparaginase

“…Endophytes belonging to Diaporthe, Phyllosticta, and Colletotrichum are frequently isolated (Murali et al 2007;Singh et al 2017;Bezerra et al 2018). Species of these genera are commonly reported as endophytic fungi from medicinal crops; endemic, natural, and invasive plants; and economically important plants.…”

Seasonal variability in fungal endophytes from Aizoaceae plants in the Succulent Karoo biodiversity hotspot, South Africa

“…Estimation of fungal endophyte diversity is biased by many parameters including sampling strategy, method of isolation, initial incubation temperature, ability to grow in culture and technique of identification (Higgins et al, 2011;Suryanarayanan et al, 2011). Certain fungal groups like endophytic basidiomycetes (as was the case in this study) fail to be detected by culturing approaches alone (Suryanarayanan et al, 2011, Singh et al, 2017. Therefore it has recently become more commonplace to investigate the total fungal endophyte community from different environments, using a combination of culturing and culture-independent approaches, such as next generation sequencing (NGS) (Hibbett et al, 2011;Singh et al, 2017).…”