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

Suryanarayanan, TS and Murali, TS and Thirunavukkarasu, N and Rajulu, Govinda MB and Venkatesan, G and Sukumar, R (2011) Endophytic fungal communities in woody perennials of three tropical forest types of the Western Ghats, southern India. In: Biodiversity & Conservation, 20 (5). pp. 913-928.

PDF Endophytic.pdf - Published Version Restricted to Registered users only Download (510kB) | Request a copy

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.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Biodiversity & Conservation
Publisher:	Springer
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Springer.
Keywords:	Endophyte;Fungal endophyte;Tropical forests;Fungal diversity
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences
Date Deposited:	06 May 2011 06:33
Last Modified:	06 May 2011 06:33
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/37399

Actions (login required)

View Item