Abstract
Endophytic fungi live within the healthy tissues of plants and can promote host species tolerance to different environmental stresses. However, most studies have been of plants in humid environments, and there are few reports of the benefits of such associations for plants of extreme environments. Our aims were to identify endophytic fungi using morphological taxonomy, to explore richness and estimate species frequency in a cactus, C. jamacaru, in Brazilian tropical dry forest (Caatinga). We thus identified 59 taxa, corresponding to 69.7 % of the total number of isolates; the other 30.3 % were sterile mycelia. Cladosporium cladosporioides and Fusarium oxysporum were the species most commonly isolated, followed by Acremonium implicatum, Aureobasidium pullulans, Trichoderma viride, Chrysonilia sitophila, and Aspergillus flavus. Forty-seven species are recorded for the first time as endophytic fungi of cacti, and 18 others as endophytes for Brazil; this suggests that C. jamacaru harbors a highly diverse fungal community as measured by a diversity index. However, species accumulation curves suggest that our study still underestimates endophyte diversity because it does not provide an exhaustive sample. To our knowledge, this is the first report of endophytic fungi from C. jamacaru in tropical dry forests.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP-01.08.0392.00), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG, CRA-APQ 00001–11), Fundação de Amparo a Ciência e Tecnologia de Pernambuco (FACEPE APQ-0290-2.12/10), Sistema Nacional de Pesquisa em Biodiversidade – SISBIOTA Brasil (Process 563304/2010-3) of Brazil for financial support of this project. We extend our thanks to the Instituto Fazenda Tamanduá (Tamanduá Farm), Danielle Karla Silva (MSc.), Dra. Neiva Tinti de Oliveira, Dr. João Lúcio de Azevedo, and two anonymous reviewers for suggestions regarding the manuscript. We also thank the students of the Laboratório de Citologia e Genética de Fungos/UFPE for their technical help and processing of samples.
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Bezerra, J.D.P., Santos, M.G.S., Barbosa, R.N. et al. Fungal endophytes from cactus Cereus jamacaru in Brazilian tropical dry forest: a first study. Symbiosis 60, 53–63 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13199-013-0243-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13199-013-0243-1