The diversity of endophitic fungi on Annua mutant plantation (Artemisia annua L.) based on ITS rDNA marker

Abstract

Artemisia annua is a plant that produces artemisinin which is an antimalarial compound. The production of artemisinin compounds is influenced by the interaction of endophytic molds with their host plants. This study was conducted to identify endophytic molds found in plant tissues of A. annua which previously had been treated by mutations with Ethyl metahnesulfonate (EMS) to increase artemisinin production levels. Identification was carried out by using BLAST analysis, while the phylogenetic tree analysis used the minimum evolution (ME) method on MEGA 7 and the maximum parsimony (MP) method on PAUP 4.0b10. Phylogenetic analysis used noncoding sequences of the Internal Transcribe Spacer (ITS) rDNA region. Twelve endophytic molds (8 isolates from leaves, 2 isolates from stems, 1 isolate from petioles, and 1 isolate from flowers) in the Biogen Culture collection. This study identified to the species level phylogenetically. The endophytic molds identified were dominated by the Sordariomycetes group. It consist of 4 species, such as Clonostachys rosea, Fusarium oxysporum, Microascus gracillis, and Scopulariopsis brevicaulis, and another species belonging to the Eurotiomycetes group, is Aspergillus sydowii. A total of 4 families were obtained, such as Nectriaceae, Bionectriaceae, Microascaceae, and Aspergillaceae. All acquired classes belong to the Ascomycota division.