Biodiversity study of endophytic fungi associated with two Quercus species in Iran

Aim of study: In this study, frequency and diversity of fungal endophyte communities inhabiting twigs and branches of apparently healthy Q. macranthera and Q. brantii in East Azerbaijan and Lorestan provinces of Iran is presented.Area of study: East Azerbaijan and Lorestan provinces in Iran.Materials and methods: Culturable fungal endophytes were recovered from wood tissues using routine technique for isolation of fungal endophytes. The identity of fungal isolates were determined based on morphological characteristics and sequences data of ITS-rDNA region and Beta-tubulin gene. Frequency and diversity among fungal communities were analyzed using chi-square test and biodiversity indices.Main results: The highest frequency and diversity was detected for fungal endophyte community recovered from Q. macranthera and East Azerbaijan province. The assemblage of endophytic fungi characterized in this study in healthy tissues of oak trees indicates that some of the fungi are possible latent pathogens such as Biscogniauxia mediterranea with 18.28% frequency followed by Alternaria alternata and Trichothecium roseum respectively. Two fungal taxa of Pyronema domesticum and Valsa persoonii are reported for the first time in Iran. Overall, the results of this study show that the plant species and growth location influence frequency and diversity of culturable fungal endophytic communities of Quercus in Iran.Keywords: Quercus macranthera, Quercus brantii, Fungal endophytes, Molecular identification.Abbreviations used: CBS (Centraal Bureau voor Schimmelcultures); CCTU (Culture Collection of University of Tabriz); GTR (General Time Reversible); HKY (Hasegawa Kishino Yano); ITS-rDNA (Internal Transcribed Space); km (kilometer) ; PDA (Potato Dextrose Agar); TUB (Tubulin)

New insights into the microbiome of apple fruit surface “cv Pinova” through metagenomics

Plant microbial communities (microbiota) living at the surface of fruit have been the source of the majority of biocontrol agents (BCAs) but their role as a community has been poorly studied so far. A pioneering assay using highthroughput sequencing (HTS) has been carried out to get insight into the microbiota of apple surface through metagenome sequencing. Apple from cv. Pinova were sampled in Belgium during Autumn 2013 and then the microbiota was isolated. After DNA extraction, the HTS assay generated 14.5 Gbases which were assembled in 133,888 contigs. These contigs provided useful information on taxonomic composition of the microbiota. Our results demonstrated high fungal and bacterial diversity on conventionally treated apple cv. Pinova. A total of 1398 bacterial species and 397 fungal species have been identified. Among the detected fungi, the phylum Ascomycota prevailed on the surface of fruits whilst Bacteroides were dominant in the bacterial population. Some contigs appear to be closely related to apple pathogenic fungi like Aspergillus spp., Botrytis spp., Sclerotinia spp. and Penicilium spp. and apple associated pathogenic bacteria like Erwinia spp. and Agrobacterium spp. Others were assigned to species of known BCA strains like Cryptococcus spp., Talaromyces spp, Candida spp., Saccharomyces spp., Bacillus spp. and Enterobacter spp. These results underline a very diverse microbial community whose role needs to be characterize

Biodiversity study of endophytic fungi associated with two Quercus species in Iran

Aim of study: In this study, frequency and diversity of fungal endophyte communities inhabiting twigs and branches of apparently healthy Q. macranthera and Q. brantii in East Azerbaijan and Lorestan provinces of Iran is presented.Area of study: East Azerbaijan and Lorestan provinces in Iran.Materials and methods: Culturable fungal endophytes were recovered from wood tissues using routine technique for isolation of fungal endophytes. The identity of fungal isolates were determined based on morphological characteristics and sequences data of ITS-rDNA region and Beta-tubulin gene. Frequency and diversity among fungal communities were analyzed using chi-square test and biodiversity indices.Main results: The highest frequency and diversity was detected for fungal endophyte community recovered from Q. macranthera and East Azerbaijan province. The assemblage of endophytic fungi characterized in this study in healthy tissues of oak trees indicates that some of the fungi are possible latent pathogens such as Biscogniauxia mediterranea with 18.28% frequency followed by Alternaria alternata and Trichothecium roseum respectively. Two fungal taxa of Pyronema domesticum and Valsa persoonii are reported for the first time in Iran. Overall, the results of this study show that the plant species and growth location influence frequency and diversity of culturable fungal endophytic communities of Quercus in Iran.Keywords: Quercus macranthera, Quercus brantii, Fungal endophytes, Molecular identification.Abbreviations used: CBS (Centraal Bureau voor Schimmelcultures); CCTU (Culture Collection of University of Tabriz); GTR (General Time Reversible); HKY (Hasegawa Kishino Yano); ITS-rDNA (Internal Transcribed Space); km (kilometer) ; PDA (Potato Dextrose Agar); TUB (Tubulin)