New Taxon of Fungal Endophytes from Phrynium capitatum Willd: A Promising Ethnomedicinal Plant in Northeast India and its Systematic and Phylogenetic Analysis

Abstract

The findings of the current study deal with the first time report on the diversity of fungal endophyte from the ethnomedicinal plant- Phrynium capitatum Willd., (Marantaceae). The plant is growing wildly in the forest of Papum Pare, Arunachal Pradesh, India, and traditionally been used for anti-diabetic, antihyperglycemic or analgesic effects. During the investigation, samples of the plant parts, viz., leaves, stem, and roots were collected for isolation of endophytic spp. The endophytic spp were identified based on the morphological, cultural, and reproductive structures (hyaline, ellipsoidal, aseptate, pycnidia, beta conidia, perithecia, asci, and ascospores). Further, the phylogenetic analysis of the isolated species was made, using the sequences of 5.8S and 28S rDNA internal transcribed spacer sequence 1 and 4. The largest number of fungal endophytes (39%) were isolated from the leaves, followed by the roots (31%) and stems (30%). Overall 35 fungal species have been isolated, out of which, thirty-four belongs to the class Ascomycetes, and one from the class zygomycetes. The highest species richness and frequency of colonization were recorded in the leaf. The observations show that Pestalotiopsis longiseta was the most dominant endophytic species followed by Diplodina microsperma, Nodulisporium hinnuleum, Aspergillus flavus , Diaporthe sp., Nigrospora oryzae and Lasiodiplodia viticola. However, Pestalotiopsis neglecta, Sordaria fimicola, Diplodina microsperma, Fusarium incarnatum, Preussia sp., Diaporthe sp., Aureobasidium sp.were common fungal endophytes isolated from P. capitatum