Biodiversity study of endophytic fungi associated with two Quercus species in Iran

Saied Ghasemi,Kaivan Karimi,Mahdi Arzanlou,Majid Tavakoli,Illaria Pertot,Sima Khodaei

doi:10.5424/fs/2019281-14528

Saied Ghasemi, Kaivan Karimi + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.5424/fs/2019281-14528

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Journal: Forest Systems	Publication Date: Jun 7, 2019
Citations: 4	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: University of Tabriz, Fondazione Edmund Mach

Abstract

Aim of study: In this study, frequency and diversity of fungal endophyte communities inhabiting twigs and branches of apparently healthy Q. macranthera and Q. brantii in East Azerbaijan and Lorestan provinces of Iran is presented.Area of study: East Azerbaijan and Lorestan provinces in Iran.Materials and methods: Culturable fungal endophytes were recovered from wood tissues using routine technique for isolation of fungal endophytes. The identity of fungal isolates were determined based on morphological characteristics and sequences data of ITS-rDNA region and Beta-tubulin gene. Frequency and diversity among fungal communities were analyzed using chi-square test and biodiversity indices.Main results: The highest frequency and diversity was detected for fungal endophyte community recovered from Q. macranthera and East Azerbaijan province. The assemblage of endophytic fungi characterized in this study in healthy tissues of oak trees indicates that some of the fungi are possible latent pathogens such as Biscogniauxia mediterranea with 18.28% frequency followed by Alternaria alternata and Trichothecium roseum respectively. Two fungal taxa of Pyronema domesticum and Valsa persoonii are reported for the first time in Iran. Overall, the results of this study show that the plant species and growth location influence frequency and diversity of culturable fungal endophytic communities of Quercus in Iran.Keywords: Quercus macranthera, Quercus brantii, Fungal endophytes, Molecular identification.Abbreviations used: CBS (Centraal Bureau voor Schimmelcultures); CCTU (Culture Collection of University of Tabriz); GTR (General Time Reversible); HKY (Hasegawa Kishino Yano); ITS-rDNA (Internal Transcribed Space); km (kilometer) ; PDA (Potato Dextrose Agar); TUB (Tubulin).

Highlights

Certain microscopic fungi live at least a part of their life cycle inside the tissues of the plants without causing visible signs or symptoms and, are named endophytes (Petrini, 1996)
A total of 94 fungal isolates comprising of 30 species were isolated from Q. macranthera and Q. brantii (Table 1)
At least one representative of each taxonomic group was subjected to molecular identification based on ITS-rDNA or tubulin gene (TUB) sequence analysis

Summary

Introduction

Certain microscopic fungi live at least a part of their life cycle inside the tissues of the plants without causing visible signs or symptoms and, are named endophytes (Petrini, 1996). Fungal endophytes are a taxonomically and ecologically heterogeneous group and seem to make up a large fraction of the fungal biodiversity (Petrini et al, 1992; Saikkonen et al, 1998; Arnold et al 2000, 2003). Endophytes in plants can play important ecological roles, e.g. mediating plant defense reactions against pathogens and herbivores or influencing host responses to abiotic stressors such as drought (Costa Pinto et al, 2000; Arnold et al, 2003; Schardl et al, 2004; Arnold & Engelbrecht, 2007; Mejia et al, 2008; Estrada et al, 2013). The role of some endophytes in host plants is still unclear (Mirabolfathy, 2013).

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