Morphological and Molecular Characterization of Endophytic Fungi isolated from the leaves of Bergenia ciliata

Abstract

 Endophytic fungi are microorganisms that are present inside the healthy tissue of living plants. Endophytes existence inside the plants tissue enhances the growth and development of the bio-active compounds which increase the quality and quantity of crude drugs. The endophytic fungal assemblages from the medicinal plants are limited around the world. The present study was conducted for the morphological and molecular identification of the endophytic fungi isolated from medicinal plant leaves Bergenia ciliata collected from different mountain areas of Sikkim, India.  In this study total of 130 leaves segment was selected for fungal isolation from which 75 fungal colonies were recovered among them 25 different endophytes were isolated and characterized based on the morphological appearance and colony characters. Further all 25 fungi were identified molecular level through Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) and ITS2 sequence-secondary structure based analysis. On the basis of morphological and molecular characterization the isolated fungi were belonging to 6 orders i.e. Glomerellales, Trichosphaeriales, Diaporthales, Xylariales, Botryosphaeriales, Pleorotales and 9 genera i.e. Colletotrichum, Nigrospora, Phomopsis/ Diaporthe, Arthrinium, Neofusicoccum, Stagonosporopsis, Phomatodes, Pestalotiopsis, Guignardia of the Ascomycetes class. Among the isolates Colletotrichum sp were dominant.  This is the first report of endophytic fungal assemblage from Bergenia ciliata.