Abstract
Artemisia is a plant genus highly studied for its medicinal applications. The studies on the associated fungal endophytes are scarce. Ten plants specimens of Artemisia thuscula from Tenerife and La Palma were sampled to isolate the endophytic fungi. Identification of the endophytic fungi was based on morphology, Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) and Large Subunit (LSU) regions sequencing and indicates 37 fungal species affiliated to 25 fungal genera. Colonization rate varied among plants (CR = 25% to 92.11%). The most dominant colonizers found were Alternaria alternata (CF = 18.71%), Neofusicoccum sp. (CF = 8.39%) and Preussia sp. (CF = 3.23). Tendency for host specificity of most endophytic fungal species was observed. Sorensen–Dice index revealed that of 45 cases in the matrix, 27 of them were of zero similarity. Further, only one case was found to have 57% similarity (TF2 and TF7) and one case with 50% similarity (TF1 and TF4). The rest of the cases had values ranging between 11% and 40% similarity. Diversity indices like Brillouin, Margalef species richness, Simpson index of diversity and Fisher’s alpha, revealed plants from La Palma with higher values than plants from Tenerife. Three nutrient media (i.e., potato dextrose agar―PDA, lignocellulose agar―LCA, and tomato juice agar―V8) were used in a case study and revealed no differences in terms of colonization rate when data was averaged. Colonization frequency showed several species with preference for nutrient medium (63% of the species were isolated from only one nutrient medium). For the phylogenetic reconstruction using the Bayesian method, 54 endophytic fungal ITS sequences and associated GenBank sequences were analyzed. Ten orders (Diaporthales, Dothideales, Botryosphaeriales, Hypocreales, Trichosphaeriales, Amphisphaeriales, Xylariales, Capnodiales, Pleosporales and Eurotiales) were recognized. Several arrangements of genera draw the attention, like Aureobasidium (Dothideales) and Aplosporella (Botryosphaeriales) which are clustered with a recent ancestor (BS = 0.97).
Highlights
Vascular plants species [1,2], aquatic plants and algae [3,4], mosses and ferns [5,6] examined to date are found to be hosts for endophytic bacteria and fungi [7]
Plants of Artemisia thuscula species were collected from Canary Islands (La Palma and Tenerife)
The employed analyses indicate that 37 fungal species and 25 fungal genera were isolated from 10 plants of Artemisia thuscula
Summary
Vascular plants species [1,2], aquatic plants and algae [3,4], mosses and ferns [5,6] examined to date are found to be hosts for endophytic bacteria and fungi [7]. Fungal endophytes aid plants to withstand and tolerate unfavorable environmental conditions [13,14] and promote plant growth [15,16]. These inhabitants can produce the same or similar secondary metabolites [17,18,19,20] as their host and play vital roles in vivo such as signaling, defense, and regulation of the symbiosis [21]. Investigations are based on their use as biochemical tools and the end products are to be used in pharmaceutics, industry, and agriculture
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