Internal mycobiota of pteridophytes from Koili Hills (Eastern Ghats), Tamilnadu

 

    Endophytic fungi are treated as a special group of fungi present within the host tissue and do not produce any visual symptoms in host plants. The studies on fungi from higher plants have been frequently reported. However, these studies relating to lower plants like Gymnosperms and Pteridophytes are meager. This study was conducted to find out the internal mycobiota of few pteridophytes collected from the Kolli hills of Eastern Ghats of India. This region is considered as one of the hot spots

for its biodiversity in the world. The species, Adiantum raddianum C. presl, Pteris quadriaurita Retz and Dryopteris coehleata (D.Don) C. Chr., were selected from the present study as they are widely distributed in and around the Kolli hills.

 

    Altogether 2700 (900 segments from each species) segments (1cm²) were screened for the internal mycobiota. A total of 943 fungal isolates were recovered. Among them 460 isolates were sterile morphospecies. The remaining isolates were classified into 16 species of fungi belonging to 12 genera. Among them a maximum number of species were recorded from A. raddianum (13) followed by D. coehleata (12) and P. quadriaurita (11). The endophytic infection rate revealed that 41.9% of the tissues were infected by the endophytic fungi in P. quadriaurita  followed by 34.3% in D. coehleata and 28.5% in A. raddianum. The results of this investigation will be presented and discussed in detail.