Diversity of Endophytic Fungi Associated with Roots of Calanthe discolor and Cephalanthera longibracteata in Korea.

Bong-Hyung Lee   Ahn-Heum Eom*   

1Department of Biology Education, Korea National University of Education, Cheongju 28173, Korea

Abstract

In this study, endophytic fungi were isolated from the surface-sterilized roots of Calanthe discolor and Cephalanthera longibracteata collected from the Chungnam, Jeju, Kyungnam and Chungbuk provinces in Korea. The morphological characteristics of the obtained isolates were examined and their sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rDNA region were analyzed using the ITS1F and ITS4 primers for species identification. Leptodontidium orchidcola showed the highest species abundance and frequency among the isolated endophytic fungi. Additionally, the community analysis revealed a high specificity between the host plants and the endophytic fungal species.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2017R1D1A3B03029962).

Figures & Tables

Fig. 1. Neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree of orchid endophytic fungi isolated from roots. was used as an outgroup.