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Endophytic fungal communities in woody perennials of three tropical forest types of the Western Ghats, southern India

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Abstract

Fungal endophytes of tropical trees are expected to be exceptionally species rich as a consequence of high tree diversity in the tropics and the purported host restriction among the endophytes. Based on this premise, endophytes have been regarded as a focal group for estimating fungal numbers because their possible hyperdiverse nature would reflect significantly global fungal diversity. We present our consolidated ten-year work on 75 dicotyledonous tree hosts belonging to 33 families and growing in three different types of tropical forests of the NBR in the Western Ghats, southern India. We conclude that endophyte diversity in these forests is limited due to loose host affiliations among endophytes. Some endophytes have a wide host range and colonize taxonomically disparate hosts suggesting adaptations in them to counter a variety of defense chemicals in their hosts. Furthermore, such polyphagous endophytes dominate the endophyte assemblages of different tree hosts. Individual leaves may be densely colonized but only by a few endophyte species. It appears that the environment (the type of forest in this case) has a larger role in determining the endophyte assemblage of a plant host than the taxonomy of the host plant. Thus, different tropical plant communities have to be studied for their endophyte diversity to test the generalization that endophytes are hyperdiverse in the tropics, estimate their true species richness, and use them as a predictor group for more accurate assessment of global fungal diversity.

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Abbreviations

NBR:

Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve

PCA:

Principle Component Analysis

PDA:

Potato dextrose agar

ID:

Mean infection density

CF%:

Colonization frequency (%)

MTCC:

Microbial Type Culture Collection

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Acknowledgments

TSS acknowledges the financial assistance by Department of Biotechnology(BT/IN/FRG/TSS/2003–2004), New Delhi, Government of India and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (30/20/98-RE), Government of India, New Delhi for studying the endophytes of Western ghats. He thanks Prof. Kari Saikkonen, MTT, Plant Protection Research, Finland for reading a draft of this paper and Swami Atmaghanananda, Chairman, VINSTROM for facilities.

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Author notes

  1. T. S. Murali

    Present address: Division of Biotechnology, Manipal University, Karnataka, 576 104, India

  2. G. Venkatesan

    Present address: Department of Botany, Mannai Rajagopalaswamy Government Arts College, Mannargudi, 614 001, India

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vivekananda Institute of Tropical Mycology (VINSTROM), 70-72 P.S. Sivasamy Salai, Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Chennai, 600 004, India

    T. S. Suryanarayanan

  2. PG and Research Department of Botany, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, Chennai, 600 004, India

    T. S. Murali, N. Thirunavukkarasu, M. B. Govinda Rajulu & G. Venkatesan

  3. Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560 012, India

    R. Sukumar

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  1. T. S. Suryanarayanan
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Suryanarayanan, T.S., Murali, T.S., Thirunavukkarasu, N. et al. Endophytic fungal communities in woody perennials of three tropical forest types of the Western Ghats, southern India. Biodivers Conserv 20, 913–928 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-011-0004-5

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