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Diversity of Fungal Endophytes in Tropical Trees

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Endophytes of Forest Trees

Part of the book series: Forestry Sciences ((FOSC,volume 80))

Abstract

Our knowledge of the taxonomic diversity of fungi is not commensurate with their importance in ecosystem functions and biotechnology. While fungi may not be as appealing as some of the charismatic species, it is imperative that we get at least a near-real estimate of global fungal species diversity as early as possible to facilitate conservation and take full advantage of their technological potential. As indicator and surrogate species are used for estimating the diversity of species-rich groups such as fungi, their fidelity in reporting the diversity has to be confirmed before relying on them. In this context, tropical endophytes have been used as a reporter group to estimate global fungal diversity. I discuss here the diversity and host specificity of tropical foliar endophytes and the suitability of this ecological group of fungi as indicators of global fungal biodiversity.

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Abbreviations

(DT):

dry thorn forest

(EG):

montane evergreen forest

(DD):

dry deciduous forest

(MD):

moist deciduous forest

CE-SSCP:

(capillary electrophoresis single–stranded conformation polymorphism)

CE-FLA:

(capillary electrophoresis fragment length polymorphism)

(ITS rDNA):

internal transcribed spacer region

(DGGE):

denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis

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Acknowledgments

My thanks are due to the Department of Biotechnology(BT/IN/FRG/09/TSS/2007), Government of India and the Ministry of Forests and Environment (23/36/2003-RE), Government of India for funding the research projects to study the fungi of the Western Ghats. I thank Prof. R. Sukumar, Centre for Ecological Science, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore for his continued support and Swami Atmaghanananda, Chairman, VINSTROM for his encouragement. I thank Prof. Gregory S. Gilbert, Pepper-Giberson Professor, Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz and Prof. Felix Baerlocher, Mt. Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada for reading a draft of the manuscript and for their valuable suggestions. I take pleasure in dedicating this chapter to Prof. C.V. Subramanian, former Director, Centre for Advanced Study in Botany, University of Madras who has inspired many in India to study fungi.

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  1. Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Vivekananda Institute of Tropical Mycology (VINSTROM), Chennai, 600004, India

    Trichur S. Suryanarayanan

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  1. , Department of Biology, University of Oulu, Linnanmaa Biologintie A6, Oulu, 90570, Finland

    Anna Maria Pirttilä

  2. , School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced, North Lake Road 5200, Merced, 95343, California, USA

    A. Carolin Frank

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Suryanarayanan, T.S. (2011). Diversity of Fungal Endophytes in Tropical Trees. In: Pirttilä, A., Frank, A. (eds) Endophytes of Forest Trees. Forestry Sciences, vol 80. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1599-8_4

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