Fraxinus excelsior populations are in decline due to the ash dieback disease Hymenoscyphus fraxineus. It is important to understand genotypic and environmental effects on its fungal microbiome to develop disease management strategies. To do this, we used culture dependent and culture independent approaches to characterize endophyte material from contrasting ash provenances, environments, and tissues (leaves, roots, seeds). Endophytes were isolated and identified using nrITS, LSU, or tef DNA loci in the culture dependent assessments, which were mostly Ascomycota and assigned to 37 families. Few taxa were shared between roots and leaves. The culture independent approach used high throughput sequencing (HTS) of nrITS amplicons directly from plant DNA and detected 35 families. Large differences were found in OTU diversity and community composition estimated by the contrasting approaches and these data need to be combined for estimations of the core endophyte communities. Species richness and Shannon index values were highest for the leaf material and the French population. Few species were shared between seed and leaf tissue. PCoA and NMDS of the HTS data showed that seed and leaf microbiome communities were highly distinct and that there was a strong influence of Fraxinus species identity on their fungal community composition. The results will facilitate a better understanding of ash fungal ecology and are a step toward identifying microbial biocontrol systems to minimize the impact of the disease.

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Evolvulus alsinoides L. is used for preparation of 'Shankhapushpi', an important popular ayurvedic drug that contributes considerably to the improvement of memory power. The improvement is attributed to the presence of furanocoumarin scopoletin, a metabolite with a wide range of biological activities. This report describes, for the first time, an in vitro culture system for propagation and enhanced production of scopoletin. Different concentrations of auxins and cytokinins individually and in combination were used in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium to induce shoot regeneration in cotyledonary nodal explants and callus formation in leaf explants. The best response was achieved in MS medium fortified with 5.0 μM 6-benzyladenine (BA) in which 96 % of cultures produced 7.6 ± 0.6 shoots per explant. Regenerated shoots were rooted on MS medium with 5.0 μM indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). Plantlets were successfully acclimatized and established in soil. MS medium fortified with 10 μM BA + 5.0 μM IAA showed maximum growth and accumulation of scopoletin in cell cultures. Cell cultures could be maintained over 24 months. The influences of auxins, cytokinins, organic acids, amino acids, and fungal-derived elicitors on production of scopoletin were studied. Presence of either L-arginine, sodium pyruvate, or yeast extract highly promoted scopoletin production as compared with control and achieved 75.02-, 72.13-, and 57.98-fold higher accumulation, respectively. The results presented herein have laid solid foundation for large-scale production of scopoletin and further investigation of its purification and utilization as a novel pharmaceutical drug.