Physiological and Molecular Characterization of Biosurfactant Producing Endophytic Fungi Xylaria regalis from the Cones of Thuja plicata as a Potent Plant Growth Promoter with Its Potential Application.

Mohd Adnan,Kartik Patel,Mitesh Patel,Syed Amir Ashraf,Eyad Alshammari,Kishan Lad

doi:10.1155/2018/7362148

Abstract

Currently, there is an absolute concern for all nations in agricultural productivity to meet growing demands of human population. In recent time, biosurfactants produced by diverse group of microorganisms are used to achieve such demands as it is known for its ecofriendly use in elimination of plant pathogens and for increasing the bioavailability of nutrients for plants. Endophytic fungi are the important source of secondary metabolites and novel bioactive compounds for different biological applications. In the present study, endophytic fungi Xylaria regalis (X. regalis) recovered from the cones of Thuja plicata was evaluated for its biosurfactant producing ability and plant growth-promoting abilities through various screening methods and also via its antagonistic activity against phytopathogens like Fusarium oxysporum and Aspergillus niger. In addition, X. regalis was also tested in vivo for a various range of growth parameters in chilli under greenhouse conditions. Significant increase in shoot and root length, dry matter production of shoot and root, chlorophyll, nitrogen, and phosphorus contents of chilli seedlings was found, which reveals its ability to improve the growth of crop plants. Hence, this study suggests the possibility of biosurfactant producing endophytic fungi X. regalis as a source of novel green biosurfactant for sustainable agriculture to achieve growing demands.

Highlights

Due to various environmental changes, agricultural field confront numerous sorts of challenges like polluting influences in soil, low water ingestion capacity, pathogen attack, low plant to plant growth-promoting microorganism interactions, and so on
On the basis of morphological as well as Internal transcribed spacer gene (ITS) gene sequence analysis, a fungal strain named as Xylaria regalis belongs to the genus Xylaria was isolated from the cones of Thuja plicata
Endophytic fungal strain named as X. regalis belongs to the genus Xylaria was isolated from the cones of Thuja plicata

Summary

Introduction

Due to various environmental changes, agricultural field confront numerous sorts of challenges like polluting influences in soil, low water ingestion capacity, pathogen attack, low plant to plant growth-promoting microorganism interactions, and so on. To defeat these sorts of challenges, there is a need of various ecofriendly biological amendments like biosurfactants. Plants have an intrinsic relationship with a broad range of microbes that colonize the phyllosphere (epiphytic bacteria), the rhizosphere (rhizobacteria), and plant tissue (endophytes) [9] Endophytic fungi are those microorganisms, which are associated with plants and inhabit them for at least a certain period of time without causing any kind of adverse effects.

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Conclusion