Molecular identification of endophytic fungi associated with Coleus forskohlii (Willd.) Briq.

Coleus forskohlii (Willd.) Briq. is a notable medicinal plant belonging to the family Lamiaceae. Understanding the diversity of endophytic fungi associated with this medicinally important plant species and screening them to yield bioactive compounds would be highly useful for the herbal drug industry. The present study was undertaken to isolate and identify the diversity of fungal endophytes associated with C. forskohlii (Willd.) Briq. The fungal endophytes were isolated following standard procedures and molecular identification was carried out by using the 18S rRNA gene; the amplified regions were sequenced and submitted to NCBI, GenBank. A total of 85 endophytic fungi were isolated from 280 leaf segments. Molecular identification revealed 34 fungal genera. Among these, species of Cladosporium sp., Alternaria sp., Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus sp., Colletotrichum sp., Nigrospora oryzae, Penicillium sp., and Phyllosticta fallopiae were found to be predominant genera. The percentage occurrence of members of Ascomycota was the highest, with 96.47% distribution and Basidiomycota members were distributed the least, with 3.53%. The study revealed the diversity of endophytic fungi associated with the leaves of C. forskohlii and the phylogenetic tree shows the relationships between the endophytic fungi.