Chapter 7 - Fungal diversity in mangroves of India and a note on their medicinal potential

Abstract

Mangroves are distributed along both the east and the west coasts of India, with more diversity reported from the west coast. More than 414 fungal species belonging to around 226 genera have been reported from the mangroves of India. The majority of them (325 species in 189 genera) belong to Ascomycota, and of those remaining, 35 species in 28 genera belong to Basidiomycota, and 54 species in 10 genera belong to Zygomycota. More than 80% of these fungi could be considered as obligate marine fungi, whereas several facultative marine fungi that are normally recorded from terrestrial environments were also recorded. While 306 fungi belonging to 170 genera were recorded from mangroves of the Indian west coast, 225 species in 131 genera were recorded from mangroves of the east coast. Of the 414 fungi reported from mangroves, 117 species in 75 genera were common to both the east and the west coasts. A total of 108 species in 56 genera were reported just from the east coast Indian mangroves. Likewise, a total of 189 species in 95 genera were recorded just from the west coast of Indian mangroves. From Zygomycota, Glomus was found to be the most speciose genus, having 20 species. Among the different fungal genera of Ascomycota, Corollospora is represented with 13 species, followed by Aspergillus and Aniptodera with 11 and 9 species, respectively. Phaeosphaeria, Leptosphaeria, and Lulworthia are represented with eight species, while many other genera of this group were recorded with fewer species. Among the anamorphic genera, Cirrenalia is found to be represented with six species. Among the different mangrove host plants prevailing in India, Rhizophora mucronata exhibited a large fungal species diversity, followed by Avicennia officinalis, A. marina, and Rhizophora apiculata. Moderate diversity has been reported on Brugueira gymnorrhiza, Sonneratia caseolaris, while other plants, such as Acanthus ilicifolius, Avicennia alba, Ceriops decandra, and so on, have shown a very low fungal diversity.