Study of endophytic fungal community from different parts of Aegle marmelos Correae (Rutaceae) from Varanasi (India)

Endophytic fungi were isolated from healthy, living, and symptomless tissues of inner bark, leaf, and roots of Aegle marmelos, a well-known medicinal plant, growing in different parts of India including Varanasi. A total of 79 isolates of endophytic fungi were isolated, representing 21 genera, adopting a standard isolation protocol. Members of the deuteromycotina were more prevalent than ascomycotina and others. The result was quite encouraging in terms of maximum isolates recovery from hyphomycetes (78.5%) followed by ascomycetes (8.9%) and coelomycetes (7.6%) respectively, which corroborates previous studies in same area. However, 5.1% isolates remained unidentified and were classified under Mycelia Sterilia. No isolate was obtained from either basidiomycotina or from zygomycotina. Fusarium spp. had maximum colonization frequency (8.00%) in this plant. The other dominant endophytic genera were Aspergillus spp., Alternaria sp., Drechslera sp., Rhizoctonia sp., Curvularia sp., Nigrospora sp., and Stenella sp. Only two ascomycetous members Chaetomium globosum and Emericella sp. (perfect state of Aspergillus sp.) were obtained from the bark sample. These results indicated that distribution of endophytic fungi within the A. marmelos is not even. Bark harbors more endophytic fungi than leaf and root.