Technical Sessions-Abstracts-Poster Session 1-PS-11-PS-27

36th Ann. Meeting of MSI & Nat. Seminar on Fungal Biodiversity & Bioprospecting….. Goa, India Oct., 29-30, 2009

POSTER SESSION 1

PS – 11

Fungal interactions with plants ---- A Pandorabox with chemicals

Ashwani Sharma and Pushpa Agrawal
R. V. College of Engineering, Bangalore 59.

Interactions of plants and phytopathogenic fungi has become one of the most interesting and rapidly moving fields in the plant sciences; the findings of which have contributed tremendously to the development of new strategies of plant protection. Fungi produce numerous low molecular weight molecules endowed with a multitude of biological activities. Hydrophobins play important roles in morphogenesis and pathogenesis in fungi and fruit development in mushrooms. Many plant-pathogen interactions are accompanied by plant cell death. Fungal plant pathogens have evolved diverse mechanisms for penetrating into host plant tissue, ranging from entry through natural plant openings to various mechanisms of direct penetration through the outer surface. The Red Queen Hypothesis (RQH) explains how pathogens may maintain sexual reproduction in hosts. The polyamines putrescine, spermidine and the spermine are ubiquitous in plant cells and their metabolism undergoes profound changes in response to infection by fungi and viruses. In fungal infection, the pattern of changes in polyamine levels depends, in part, upon whether the fungus is a biotroph or a necrotroph. Alterations in polyamine levels in plant interactions depends upon the nature of the interaction i.e. whether it is compatible or incompatible. Plants are exposed to attack by an immense array of microorganisms, yet are resistant to almost all of these potential pests. Many plants respond to an invasion by a pathogenic or nonpathogenic microorganism, whether a fungus, a bacterium or a virus, by accumulating phytoalexins, low molecular weight compounds which inhibit the growth of microorganisms. Phytoalexins are probably also toxic to higher animal and plant cells. Molecules of microbial origin which trigger phytoalexin accumulation in plants have been called elicitors. Plants recognize and respond to elicitors as foreign molecules. phytoalexins are not capable, by themselves, of protecting plants from their pathogens.

PS – 12

Diversity of marine fungi from Mandovi Estuary

A. Bicholkar*, M. Gazem and S. Nazareth
Department of Microbiology, Goa University, Taleigao Plateau, Goa 403206.

An estuary is a semi-enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and connected to the open sea. In terms of productivity, mangroves and estuaries constitute the second most important ecosystem after coral reefs in marine habitats.
The Mandovi estuary in Goa is about 50 kms long and is situated on the west coast of India. Being a detritus-driven ecosystem, the estuary encompasses a variety of marine fungi belonging to different genera. The fungal component of estuaries and mangroves deserves special attention to understand the pattern of detritus decomposition and enrichment. Most investigations on fungi of the west coast of India are confined to mangrove leaf or woody litter and only a few on estuaries.
The present study was carried out to investigate the diversity of marine fungi from ten stations along the Mandovi estuary. Isolates were picked up for study, based on the dissimilarity in cultural characteristics and were identified as belonging to the genera Aspergillus, Penicillium, Cladosporium, Alternaria, Fusarium and Paecilomyces. It was seen that aspergilli was the dominant mycoflora at almost all stations, followed by penicilli.


PS – 13

Microfungi from saline soils of Tamil Nadu coast and their potential applications

K. P. Girivasan and P. T. Devarajan*
Department of Plant Biology and Plant Biotechnology, Government Arts College for Men (Autonomous), Nandanam, Chennai 600 035.
*Department of Plant Biology and Plant Biotechnology, Loganatha Narayanasamy Government College, Ponneri 601 204.

Saline soil represents one of the extreme environments for the survival of microbes due to the salinity prevailing in this environment. A Survey of microfungi from the saline soils of seven different sites located in coastal districts of Tamil Nadu was conducted. This study yielded 100 genera belonging to 176 species. Hyphomycete group showed maximum percentage of occurrence in all the soil samples irrespective of sites. Aspergillus contributed maximum number of species. Further, the percentage of occurrence of this genus was found to be high in most of the sampling sites studied. Few fungi isolated from the saline soil samples were tested for the produ
ction of extracellular enzymes. Most of the fungi tested were positive for the enzyme activity,.

PS – 14

Endophytic coelomycetes from medicinal plants

G. Jayanthi* and J. Muthumary
Centre for Advanced Studies in Botany, University of Madras, Guindy campus, Chennai 25.
E-mail: jayanthi_psg@rediffmail.com

Coelomycetes are known mainly from tropical and temperate regions and are capable of growing, reproducing and surviving in a wide variety of ecological situations. The present investigation were carried out to study the endophytic coelomycetes, in which Monochaetia sp, Seimatosporium sp, Phoma sp, Phomopsis sp, Botryodiplodia sp, Pestalotiopsis sp and Colletotrichum sp, were isolated as endophytes from different medicinal plants such as Mesua ferrea, Piper nigum, Pome granate, Rauvolfia serpentina,Vitex negundo, and Polyalthia longifolium.


PS – 15

Biodiversity of mesophilic and halotolerant microfungi in waters of mangrove in Pitchavaram, Tamil Nadu

K. P. Kannan*, K. Srilekha, S. Bhuvaneswari*, and N.K. Udaya Prakash**
Department of Biotechnology, Bannari Amman Institute of Technology
Sathyamangalam, Erode District, Tamil Nadu. India.
**MARINA Labs, Margo Mansion, Choolai medu, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
Email: kp_kannan2001@yahoo.co.in; nkudayaprakash@yahoo.com

The study of Mesophilic and Halotolerant microfungi in the waters of mangrove forests at Pitchavaram was conducted in 20 different sampling sites. Altogether a total of 15 halotolerant fungal species were recorded from the waters of the mangrove forests. Among the total genera recorded Aspergillus was represented by more number of species (5) and the genus Penicillium was represented by 2 species. Other species that were recorded were Rhizopus stolonifer, Acremonium, Cladosporium cladosporioides, Drechsclera, Monilia sitophila, Paeciliomyces variotii, Trichoderma viride, None sporulating Sp and Sclerotium producing Sp. Among the species that were recorded Rhizopus stolonifer had the maximum Average CFU/ Lt (1000 CFU/Lt of water) with a percent contribution of 11.83% of the total. Altogether a total of 17 mesophilic fungal species were recorded from the waters of the mangrove forests. Among the total genera recorded, Aspergillus was represented by more number of species (6) and the genus Penicillium was represented by three species. Other species recorded were Acremonium, Alternaria alternata, Cladosporium cladosporioides, Drechsclera, Monilia sitophila, Trichoderma viride. Non- sporulating and Sclerotium producing sp. Among the species that were recorded Penicillium oxalicum had the maximum Average CFU/ Lt (6750 CFU/Lt of water) with a percent contribution of 36.54% of the total.This study amply demonstrates the Biodiversity of microfungal species present in the waters of Mangrove forests of Pitchavaram.To conclude, these potential fungi can be exploited biotechnologically for the Industrial Benefits.
PS – 16

Diversity of white-spored agarics in Puducherry

V. Kumaresan, D. Rajarajan and T. Ganesan
Department of Plant Science, Tagore Arts College, Puducherry 605 008.

Agarics (gilled-fungi) belonging to the order Agaricales were sampled from different places in Puducherry during the rainy season of January 2007- January 2009. A total of 121
collections were made that belonged to 51 species in 9 families that included 32 white-spored species. The present study deals with the diversity of the white-spored species recorded from Puducherry that belong to the genera including Crinipellis, Hohenbuehelia, Lactocollybia, Lentinus, Lepiota, Lepista, Leucocoprinus, Macrolepiota, Marasmiellus, Marasmius, Pleurotus, Pluteus, Schizophyllum, Termitomyces and Volvariella. Lepiota and Marasmius were the dominant genera recorded.

PS – 17

Studies on the indigenous Lentinus Spp. of Eastern Ghats, India

M. Kumar, D. Sundaralingam and V. Kaviyarasan*
CAS in Botany, University of Madras, Guindy Campus, Chennai 600 025.
*Email: manikavi53@gmail.com

Kolli Hills was studied as a part of mushroom biodiversity survey in Eastern Ghats. There were about ninety species collected, among which five Lentinus spp. viz., Lentinus tuberregium, L. pseudotenebrosus, L. squarrosulus, L. tigrinus and L. cladopus were identified through classical and molecular taxonomy. Cultures were isolated, purified and maintained on PDA medium. Standard identification keys were used for identification through classical taxonomy. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region I and II were amplified through PCR technique and analysed for its sequence arrangements. Phylogenetic tree was constructed against available sequence data base. The result supports the identification derived by the classical taxonomy. All the five cultures were screened for polysaccharide production in different production medium under shaking condition. Among them L. cladopus showed more exopolysasccharide production (495mg/l) followed by L. tuberregium. (456mg/l)

PS – 18

Diversity of fungi in salterns and mangroves situated at two different sites in Goa

V. Gonsalves , S. Nayak and S. Nazareth
Department of Microbiology, Goa University, Goa 403 206.

Solar salterns are man-made shallow multi ponds for the production of halite from sea water. It is seen that a gradient of salt concentration is formed, from that of sea water to halite saturation. This area is characterized by a high solar radiation and high evaporation. Mangroves are situated at the inter-tidal zone, lying at the interface between the terrestrial and marine environment. Salinity within a mangrove ranges from 0.5-35 ppt (0.05-3.5%). Mangrove ecosystems generate considerable amount of detritus and hence an ideal environment for detritus-dependent microbes, amongst which substantial fungal populations are found.
In our study, fungi were isolated from salterns and mangroves located at Santa Cruz and at Ribander in Goa and screened for their levels of halotolerance. Ribander and Santa Cruz water and sediment samples were obtained in the month of May.
It was seen that these environments are a habitat to various fungi capable of growing at high concentrations of salt, belonging to the genus Aspergillus, Penicillium, Hortaea and Eurotium. The salt tolerance of these fungi was investigated. These fungi exhibited growth maxima at different salt concentrations.
Fungi were isolated from these samples on Czapek Dox Agar supplemented with 20% NaCl. Most of them showed an extreme halotolerance level of 20% NaCl. Some were found to be halotolerant, while most were facultative halophiles and a few were obligate halophiles

PS – 19

Isolation, Identification and Molecular analysis of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides by 18S rRNA sequencing

K. Priadharsini*, and J. Muthumary
Centre for Advanced Studies in Botany,
University of Madras, Guindy Campus, Chennai 600 025.
E-mail: dharsinipria@yahoo.com, mm_j@rediffmail.com

A fungus Colletotrichum gloeosporioides was isolated from a plant Couroupita guianensis. Fungal DNA was isolated and amplified by PCR method. The amplified 18S rRNA was sequenced to construct the phylogenetic tree as to view the evolutionary relationship between the closely related organisms. Colletotrichum gloeosporioides found to be closely related to almost 28 other Colletotrichum species showing 99% homology

PS – 20

Influence of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (AM) fungi on andrographolide concentration in Andrographis paniculata

Nair Radhika* and B. F. Rodrigues
Department of Botany, Goa University, Goa 403 206.
E-mail: radhikanair15@gmail.com

Andrographis paniculata Nees (Acanthaceae), an annual erect herb is known for its broad range of pharmacological properties. This study reports the effect of different AM fungal inocula on growth and percent concentration of andrographolide. The study revealed a significant increase in growth in all the treatments and unsterilized soil (control) compared to sterilized soil (control). Plants grown in unsterilized soil (control) and with Gigaspora albida enhanced leaf number, shoot and total plant dry weights significantly compared to other treatments and Control (sterilized soil). Andrographis paniculata revealed high mycorrhizal dependency and mycorrhizal efficiency when grown in unsterilized control and Gi. albida. Phosphorus concentration in plant tissues was observed more during the vegetative stage in A. paniculata on inoculation with G. fasciculatum. Increased concentration of andrographolide with Gi. albida inoculum confirms host preference in AM symbiosis and also identifies it as an efficient AM fungal inocula for commercial cultivation of A. paniculata.

PS – 21

Diversity, identification and documentation of black Aspergilli from India

Rahul Hepat*, Subhash Gaikwad and S. K. Singh
National Facility for Culture Collection of Fungi, Agharkar Research Institute,
G.G. Agarkar Road, Pune 411 004 (M.S.)
E-mail: r.hepat@rediffmail.com

Members of Aspergillus section Nigri (formerly A. niger group) are distributed worldwide and regarded as common food spoilage fungi. They are common source of extracellular enzymes and organic acids. Products produced by strains of Aspergillus section Nigri hold the GRAS (Generally recognized as Safe) status from FDA. In spite of their industrial importance, taxonomy of black aspergilli (Aspergillus section Nigri) is not clear and many attempts have been made in order to find suitable taxonomic criteria. The present taxonomy of black aspergilli reveals that there are 19 accepted taxa. The aim of this work is to provide an overview of phenotypic character to identify accepted species of black aspergilli from India. Colony morphology, conidial size and ornamentation of cultures will be presented. The temperature range of all these species and their growth characteristics on selective media will be given. The extrolites produced by these species are listed while the response of Ehrlich reaction will be tested. The documentation of various molecular methods used for species identification and genomic loci of black aspergilli will be presented.

PS – 22

Fungal diversity associated with decomposing leaf litter of some ornamental palms of South India

B. Sampath Kumar*, and Vittal, B. P. R. **
Department of Biotechnology, Vel Sri Ranga Sanku College, Alamathi road, Avadi, Chennai 600 062.
** Centre for Advanced Studies in Botany, University of Madras, Guindy Campus, Chennai 600 025.
E-mail: b_sampathkumar2002@yahoo.com

The fungal diversity associated with decomposing leaf litter of some Ornamental palms in South India has been investigated. Decaying leaf litter samples belonging to Corypha umbraculifera, Cayota urens and Roytsonea regia were collected from different places in South India. The fungi were isolated by direct examination as well as moist chamber incubation technique. A total number of 120 species belonging to 83 genera were recorded. Of these, 2 species belonging to Myxomycota, 7 to Zygomycota, 13 to Ascomycota and the remaining 98 species belonged to Mitosporic fungi consisting of 10 Coelomycetes and 88 Hyphomycetes. Out of a total 120 spe
cies, 59 species amounting 50 % of the total species were recorded from Coypha umbraculifera. The second highest numbers of fungi were recorded from Cayota urens (45 species). Roytsonea regia were relatively low. The result of this study will be presented and discussed in detail.

PS – 23
Genus Russula and Lactarius from Jammu and Kashmir

Sanjeev Kumar* and Y.P. Sharma
Department of Botany, University of Jammu, Jammu 180 006.
*E-mail: sanjeevkoul111@rediffmail.com

Russuloid group of fleshy fungi belonging to order Russulales have epigeal or hypogeal, agaricoid or gasteroid type of basidioma. They comprise of 484 species spread over 10 genera and 2 families world over. During a survey of mushroom flora in some regions of Jammu and Kashmir state, the authors collected several larger fungi belonging to russuloid group of macromycetes. These include three species of Lactarius namely, L. deterrimus Groger, L. vellereus (Fr.) Fr., and L. volemus (Fr.) Fr., and nine species of Russula viz., R. annulata var. evanescens var. nov., R. cyanoxantha (Schaeff.) Fr., R. foetens (Pers.) Pers., R. krombholzii Shaffer., R. lepida Fr., R. puellaris Fr., R. queletii Fr., R. tuberculosa R. Heim, and R. xerampelina (Schaeff.) Fr. All these taxa have been described and illustrated with photographs showing habit, habitat and other macro- and microscopic details. Wherever available, information on the ethnomycology of these species has also been incorporated in the present communication.

PS – 24

Biodiversity of coprophilous fungi from Goa and neighbouring regions of Karnataka and Maharashtra

Sarita K. Yadav* and D. J. Bhat
Dept. of Botany, Goa University, Goa 403 206.
*E-mail: yadavsarita24@rediffmail.com

Coprophilous fungi are ecologically a special group which is less explored compared to other fungi. Though bacteria are responsible for large portion of carnivore or omnivore dung decomposition, herbivore dung is largely digested by an array of ecologically specialized saprophytic fungi. Interestingly, herbivore dung enables one to study the entire spectrum of fungal world. Appearance of fungi on herbivore dung is unique in that they appear in succession, viz. as they appear, in order Zygomycetes, Hyphomycetes, Ascomycetes and finally Basidiomycetes. To survive in this stressful environment fungi have undergone certain ecological adaptations such as forcible discharge of spores from the fruiting bodies and presence of mucilaginous covering on spore surface.
In this study, dung samples of various herbivorous animals, viz. cow (Bos Taurus), bison (Bos gaurus) and goat (Capra hircus), deer belonging to chausingha (Tetracerus quardricornis), sambar (Cervus unicolor), spotted deer (Axis axis), elephant (Elephas maximus), rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and porcupine (Hystrix indica), were used. Moist chamber incubation and particle-plating methods were used to recover the fungi. Results of taxonomic diversity of fungi isolated from different dung samples have been detailed and discussed in this paper.

PS – 25

Some lignicolous macromycetes from Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir

Sonia Sharma*, Sanjeev Kumar and Y.P. Sharma
Department of Botany, University of Jammu, Jammu 180 006.
*E-mail: sanjeevkoul111@rediffmail.com

Survey and taxonomic studies of lignicolous macromycetes were conducted in several locations of district Poonch and eight lignicolous macromycetes namely Auricularia auricula-judae (Bull.) Quel., Sparassis cystidiosa Desjardin and Zheng Wang, Gymnopilus spectabilis A.H. Smith (Cortinariaceae), Ganoderma applanatum (Pers.) Pat., G. australe (Fr.) Pat., Lenzites furcata Fr., Pleurotus populinus O Hiber & O.K. Mill and Schizophyllum commune Fr., were recorded on various hosts. Their macro- and microscopic characteristics, and general distribution is presented in the paper.
PS – 26

Biodiversity of wood decaying fungi in forest wood depots of Chhattisgarh

C. K. Tiwari*, Jagrati Parihar and R. K. Verma
Forest Pathology Division, Tropical Forest Research Institute, Jabalpur 482 021 (M.P.)
*Email: ck_scientist@yahoo.com

The wood decaying fungi are of great practical importance chiefly because of their property to decay wood very quickly. Wood decaying fungi play an exceptional role in wood decay processes and one can hardly name any other group of fungi that could compete with them in this respect. Many of them are developed on living trees and carry forward in stored timber and cause serious losses.Wood decaying fungi have broad host ranges, with host preferences at broad phylogenetic levels such as conifers versus angiosperms. They consume dead or sometimes living wood and produce reproductive bodies (sporophores) which are used in identification of these fungi.
In the present study 512 specimens of wood decaying fungi were collected and their diversity was recorded from different forest wood depots of Chhattisgarh during the rainy season, out of these 81 species were identified, belonging to member of 17 families. For each species frequency percentage, abundance percentage, and density was calculated. Three species namely Schizophyllum commune Fr., Trametes cingulata Berk.and Flavodon flavus (Klot.) Ryvarden, were common to all sites and show their occurrence and frequency 100%, followed by 3 species like Lenzites elegans (Spreng.) Pat., Pycnoporus sanguineus (Fr.) Murr., Stereum hirsutum (Willd.) Pers. (88.9%), 4 species namely Auricularia polytricha (Mont.) Sacc., Daedalea flavida Lév., Daldinia childiae J.D. Rogers & Y.M. Ju, Fuscoporia senex (Nees & Mont.) Ghob-Nej. (77.8%), Polyporus hypomelanus Berk. ex Cooke (66.7%), 2 species namely Earliella scabrosa (Pers.) Gilb. & Ryvarden, Trametes leonina (Klotzsch) Pat. (55.6%), 5 species like Daedalea sulcata (Berk.) Ryvarden, Hapalopilus nidulans (Fr.) Karst, Xylaria polymorpha (Pers.) Grev. (44.4%), 9 species like Hexagonia tenius Speg., Lenzites betulina ( L.) Fr., Phellinus gilvus (Schwein.) Pat., Pycnoporus cinnabarinus (Jacq.: Fr.) Karst., Trametes cubensis (Mont.) Sacc., Trametes hirsuta (Wulfen) Lloyd, (33.3%), 15 species like Daedalea quercina (L.) Pers., Dichomitus leucoplacus (Berk.) Ryvarden, Ganoderma applanatum (Pers.) Pat., Hymenochaete rubiginosa (Dicks.) Lév, Innotus tabacinus (Mont.) G. Cunn., Microporus xanthopus (Fr.) Kuntze (22.2%), while 39 species like Ceriporiopsis merulinus (Berk.) Rajchenb., Coriolopsis caperata (Berk.) Murrill, Coriolopsis zeylanicus (Berk) Roy & De, Daedalea confragosa (Bolton) Pers., Microporus vernicipes (Berk.) Kuntze. Show the least occurrence and frequency (11.1%).

PS – 27
A study on diversity of mycoflora over teak plantation

N.K. Udaya Prakash* and P. Jayaraman
Department of Biotechnology,
Veltech Hightech Dr. Rangarajan Dr. Sakunthala Engineering College,
Alamadhi Road, Avadi, Chennai 600 062
*E-mail: nkudayaprakash@yahoo.com

Tectona grandis (Teak) is a large deciduous tree that reaches maximum heights of 30-40m and diameters of 2m. In India, teak occurs over nearly 9 million ha of natural forests. Now, Teak ranks among the top five tropical hardwood species in terms of plantation area established worldwide. The litter productivity of Teak is calculated to be around 1.71 to 6.45 tonnes/ha. However, degradation of 100% of this litter is found to take place by the period of around 355 days. Fungi, are potentially known to be the secondary colonizers which has major role in Biodegradation. Their ability to produce various enzymes and utilization of various substrates made them to be the dominant organism in degradation of organic materials. Thus, the present study is aimed to find out the mycological diversity of this plantation which can be exploited biotechnologically for degradation of these litters.The teak plantation of 8 acres size with 4000 teak plants of 30 feet height at the age of 12 years was selected for the study. Soil samples and dry, dehisced, non degraded leaves from 16 spots within the study plot were collected to study soil flora and leaf litter flora through litter washing technique. Further, fresh leaves from 16 different trees were selected to study phylloplane mycoflora and endophytic flora from leaves. The fungal analyses were carried out using Potato Dextrose Agar. A total of 53 different species classified under 31 genera were recorded from the environment. Among the total species, 29 were recorded from soil samples with an average of 27.12 x 103 cfu/gm. Similarly, 29 species were recorded from leaf litters with an average of 21.8 cfu/cm2. Phylloplane yielded around 24 species with an average of 8.61 cfu/cm2. However, only 14 species were recorded as endophytes from leaves. The result of the study in detail will be discussed.