Abstract
The Sundarbans forest in Bangladesh is the world’s largest mangrove. It is a unique ecosystem where living organisms face extreme challenges to compete for survival. Such competition results in the production of bioactive molecules which are useful for agriculture and human health. In this study, eighty fungal endophytes from nine mangrove plants growing in a region, as yet unexplored, of the Sundarbans were isolated by surface sterilisation and pure culture techniques. Among the eighty isolates subjected to a preliminary antimicrobial screening using an agar plug diffusion assay, only fifteen showed some promising activity. These were subsequently identified by polymerase chain reaction of their ITS gene. Extracts prepared from the identified isolates were screened for antimicrobial, antioxidant, cytotoxic and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities. Their total polyphenol and flavonoid content and their FRAP value were also determined. All endophytes are reported for the first time in the plants under investigation.
Highlights
The Sundarbans mangrove, located in the coastal region of Bangladesh, is the largest salty swamp forest in the world (Iftekhar and Saenger, 2008)
From the endophytic fungi isolated from nine mangrove plants, fifteen fungal endophytes were selected for further identification
Fungal endophytes have already been reported in Avicennia alba (Lee et al, 2019) and in A. marina (Bhimba et al, 2012; Basheer et al, 2018; Bibi et al, 2020)
Summary
The Sundarbans mangrove, located in the coastal region of Bangladesh, is the largest salty swamp forest in the world (Iftekhar and Saenger, 2008) It is a unique environment, at the interface between the marine and the terrestrial ecosystems, with a rich biodiversity of plants, animals and microorganisms that have evolved to adapt to specific environmental conditions such as high salinity and moisture, high temperatures, low oxygen, and periodic flooding (Gopal and Chauhan, 2006; Castro et al, 2014). Reports have showed that many plant species from tropical mangroves harbor microorganisms such as bacterial and fungal endophytes that live within the plant tissues (Bugni and Ireland, 2004; Castro et al, 2014) Such microorganisms have been reported to produce a variety of secondary metabolites to protect the host plants (Strobel et al, 2004; Gunatilaka, 2006; Arora et al, 2018). To the best of our knowledge, Brownlowia tersa, Ceriops decandra and Derris trifoliata have never been investigated for the presence of fungal endophytes
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
