Endophytic Fungal Flora from Roots and Fruits of an Indian Neem Plant Azadirachta indica A. Juss., and Impact of Culture Media on their Isolation

Abstract

Azadirachta indica A. Juss. (neem), native to India, is well known worldwide for its insecticidal and ethanopharmacological properties. Although endophytic microbes are known from this plant as only leaves and stems were the subjects of past reports. Now, a variety of procedures and a number of different media were used to isolate the maximum number of endophytic fungi from unripe fruits and roots. A total of 272 isolates of 29 filamentous fungal taxa were isolated at rate of 68.0% from 400 samples of three different individual trees (at locations-Az1, Az2, Az3). Mycological agar (MCA) medium yielded the highest number of isolates (95, with a 14.50% isolation rate) with the greatest species richness. Mycelia Sterilia (1, 2, 3) accounted for 11.06%, Coelomycetes 7.25%, while Hyphomycetes showed the maximum number of representative isolates (81.69%). Mycelia-Sterilia (1, 2, 3), based on their 5.8S ITS 1, ITS2 and partial 18S and 28S rDNA sequences were identified as Fusarium solani (99%), Chaetomium globosum (93%) and Chaetomium globosum (93%) respectively. Humicola, Drechslera, Colletotrichum, and Scytalidium sp. were some of the peculiar fungal endophytes recovered from this plant.

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“…The similar results found in Douglas fir 49 , Oregon white oak 50 and Azadirachta indica A. Juss 51,52 suggest that the aged tissues harbor more endophytes than the young. 54 .…”

Profundae diversitas: the uncharted genetic diversity in a newly studied group of fungal root endophytes

“…Similar studies have tested either a different medium or a range of media under different cultural conditions. Verma et al (2011) found that some of the endophytic isolates were only recovered on certain media, while other researchers have chosen a different culture medium than ours (de Souza Leite et al 2013; Fernandes et al 2015). Further experimental work with a range of culture media and cultural conditions is necessary to determine the full diversity of endophytes in our selected host.…”

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