Muscodor tigerii sp nov.-Volatile antibiotic producing endophytic fungus from the Northeastern Himalayas

Genus Muscodor came into existence with the discovery of Muscodor albus, a sterile endophytic fungus that produces a medley of volatile organic moieties possessing strong antimicrobial activity. The current paper reports Muscodor tigerii as a novel endophytic fungus from the stem internal tissue of Cinnamomum camphora growing in the Tiger Hill area of Darjeeling, West Bengal, India. M. tigerii exhibited distinct morphological, molecular and physiological features than previously reported Muscodor species. The fungus possesses all the morphological features described till date in genus Muscodor making it remarkably unique. The strong fruity smell of the fungus is attributed to 22 volatile organic compounds (VOCs), predominantly 4-Octadecylmorpholine, 1-Tetradecanamine,N,N-dimethyl and 1,2-Benzenedicarboxylic acid, mono(2-ethylhexyl) ester. The in vitro VOC stress assay completely suppressed the growth of Alternaria alternata and Cercospora beticola while growth of other fungal species was inhibited in a range of 10 %-70 %. The growth of Candida albicans in the presence of VOC was reduced by 50 %-65 % while in bacteria 50 %-80 % reduction in growth was observed. Thus, M. tigerii stands as a potential candidate to be further developed into a biocontrol agent.