Assessment of Endophytic Fungi Associated with Greavillea Robusta Tree Planted as Urban Green Infrastructure in Hawassa Town: Its Implication to Understand the Current Health Condition of Urban trees

Abstract

Endophytic fungi represent a genetically diverse group of microorganisms associated with healthy tissues of terrestrial plants. They are believed to be mostly beneficial to their host plants and produce novel antimicrobial compounds or may be latent pathogens that become active at specific stage of development or under a set of environmental conditions. The aim of the current study was to assess the diversity of culturable endophytic fungi in the leaf of diseased and healthy looking Grevillea robusta from different streets having different traffic flow. Leaf samples of G.robusta were collected from those trees growing in the road side, parks and home gardens at Hawassa town. Identification of the isolates to the genus level was performed on the basis of cultural characteristics and spore morphology. Accordingly, a total of 387 endophytic fungal isolates were recovered from 192 leaf fragments across five different streets. The highest isolation rate of endophytic fungi was recorded on a street from South Star Hotel to Bus station (IR=3.81) where as the smallest isolation rate was recorded on a street from Bus station to Atote (IR=0.71). The highest relative frequency of endophytic fungi was recorded for Pestalotiopsis spp 2 (RF=25.58%) where as the smallest was recorded was recorded for Unidentified spp 5 (RF=0.51%). Additionally, the highest diversity of endophytic fungi was recorded on the road from South Star Hotel to Bus station (H’=3.01) where as the smallest diversity of endophytic fungi was recorded on a street from Atote to Teachers Teaching College (H’=1.79). Keywords: - Disease, Urban trees, Diversity, Grevillea robusta DOI : 10.7176/ALST/77-04 Publication date: January 31 st 2020