Journal
BIOMOLECULES
Volume 11, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/biom11020140
Keywords
endophytic fungi; Ephedra pachyclada; Ascomycota; plant growth-promoting; bioactive metabolites; Zea mays L.
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Funding
- Taif University Researchers Supporting Project [TURSP-2020/13]
- Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia
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Endophytic fungi isolated from leaves of Ephedra pachyclada showed varied antimicrobial activity, plant growth-promoting properties, and enzymatic activity, with Penicillium commune EP-5 demonstrating maximum IAA productivity. The selected fungal endophytes applied as bioinoculant to maize plants improved root lengths and vegetative growth features significantly compared to uninoculated plants.
Endophytic fungi are widely present in internal plant tissues and provide different benefits to their host. Medicinal plants have unexplored diversity of functional fungal association; therefore, this study aimed to isolate endophytic fungi associated with leaves of medicinal plants Ephedra pachyclada and evaluate their plant growth-promoting properties. Fifteen isolated fungal endophytes belonging to Ascomycota, with three different genera, Penicillium, Alternaria, and Aspergillus, were obtained from healthy leaves of E. pachyclada. These fungal endophytes have varied antimicrobial activity against human pathogenic microbes and produce ammonia and indole acetic acid (IAA), in addition to their enzymatic activity. The results showed that Penicillium commune EP-5 had a maximum IAA productivity of 192.1 +/- 4.04 mu g mL(-1) in the presence of 5 mu g mL(-1) tryptophan. The fungal isolates of Penicillium crustosum EP-2, Penicillium chrysogenum EP-3, and Aspergillus flavus EP-14 exhibited variable efficiency for solubilizing phosphate salts. Five representative fungal endophytes of Penicillium crustosum EP-2, Penicillium commune EP-5, Penicillium caseifulvum EP-11, Alternaria tenuissima EP-13, and Aspergillus flavus EP-14 and their consortium were selected and applied as bioinoculant to maize plants. The results showed that Penicillium commune EP-5 increased root lengths from 15.8 +/- 0.8 to 22.1 +/- 0.6. Moreover, the vegetative growth features of inoculated maize plants improved more than the uninoculated ones.
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