Composition of endophytic fungal community associated with leaves of maize cultivated in south Brazilian field

Abstract

The objective of this study was to conduct a survey about fungi associated with leaves from two different maize plant lineages and to analyze their microbiota diversity. Isolated fungi were identified by morphological analysis and molecular taxonomy was performed using ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 rDNA. About 27 fungi morphotypes were obtained, 15 of them were from the first maize lineage. About 86.7% of the individuals belonged to the Dothideomycetes class (Phoma sorghina, Epicocum nigrum, Cladosporium sp., Bipolaris zeicola, and Alternaria alternata complex) and 13.3% to the Sordariomycetes class (Diaporthe/Phomopsis sp. and Nigrospora sp.). This ratio was opposite in the other maize lineage with 25.0% of Dothideomycetes (E. nigrum and Pleosporales) and 75.0% of Sordariomycetes (Gibberella fujikuroi complex, Fusarium graminearum complex, Diaporthe/Phomopsis sp., and Nigrospora sp.). By concerning the analyses of morphological characteristics and molecular phylogeny, this study intended to identify the groups of saprophytic, phytopathogenic, and mycotoxin fungi, which differently co-inhabit leaf tissue of maize plants in both tested lineages.

Life on the Rocks: First Insights Into the Microbiota of the Threatened Aquatic Rheophyte Hanseniella heterophylla

“…Dothideomycetes and Sordariomycetes were highly detected fungal classes among all sampling areas of H. heterophylla that have been reported to be enriched in the rhizosphere of terrestrial plants including A. thaliana, Oryza spp., Z. mays, and Populus spp. (Albrectsen et al, 2010;Yuan et al, 2011;Szilagyi-Zecchin et al, 2016;Urbina et al, 2018). We also identified unique features as compared to other model plants.…”

Molecular Identification of Endophytic Fungi from Banana Leaves (Musa spp.)

“…Phoma sorghina and L. theobromae are common plant pathogens and A. niger is well-known spoilage fungus, however, the three fungal species have also been found as endophyte in many types of plant. Endophytic P. sorghina has been reported in association with Tithonia diversifolia (Asteraceae) ( Borges & Pupo 2006 ), rice plant ( Fisher & Petrini 1992 ) and leaves of maize ( Szilagyi-Zecchin et al . 2016 ).…”

Combined Metabarcoding and Co-occurrence Network Analysis to Profile the Bacterial, Fungal and Fusarium Communities and Their Interactions in Maize Stalks

“…Some of the most abundant fungal genera found in the present study, including Fusarium , Epicoccum , Acremonium , Sarocladium , and Phoma had been reported as endophytes isolated from maize (Pan and May, 2009; Amin, 2013; Xing et al, 2018). In particular, Fusarium , Epicoccum , and Phoma were reported as the most abundant endophytes isolated from maize leaves, using two different lineages (Szilagyi-Zecchin et al, 2016), while Acremonium was detected exclusively in Fusarium wilt suppressive soils, but not in conducive soils (Siegel-Hertz et al, 2018). It is important to highlight that, in our maize samples, genera with reported biocontrol activity (Table 1) were predominant and included several bacterial genera such as Sphingomonas , Pedobacter , Flavobacterium , Pseudomonas , Janthinobacterium , Sphingobium , Chryseobacterium , Luteibacter , Dyadobacter , and Rhizobium; and fungal genera such as Epicoccum , Articulospora , Exophiala , Sarocladium , Cryptococcus , Candida , Acremonium , and Metschnikowia .…”