Assemblages of endophytic fungi on Salicornia europaea disjunctively distributed in Japan: towards clarification of the ubiquity of fungal endophytes on halophytes and their ecological roles.

Abstract

We studied assemblages of endophytic fungi on the halophilic plant Salicornia europaea in Japan. This plant is disjunctively distributed in the eastern Hokkaido and the Seto Inland Sea (Setouchi) regions. Various dematiaceous fungi that form dark spores and/or mycelia (and the related ascigerous stages) were common in S. europaea . Among them, Pleospora sp. (anamorph: Stemphylium ) and Alternaria alternata were the major endophytes found in the plant, followed by Alternaria phragmospora and Cladosporium cladosporioides . Fungal assemblages from Hokkaido were similar among years, as were assemblages collected in completely segregated regions in Japan, Hokkaido and Setouchi. While such dematiaceous fungi are generally known to be epiphytes living on the surface of terrestrial vascular plants, they may ubiquitously inhabit halophytes such as Salicornia .