Piriformospora indica, gen. et sp. nov., a New Root-Colonizing Fungus

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Mycological Society of America is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Mycologia.Abstract: A new fungus isolate was discovered in an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal spore from a desert soil in India. It could easily be cultivated on various synthetic media, and formed pear-shaped chlamydospores. Inoculation of maize showed that the fungus colonized the root cortex. Since it did not resemble any known fungus based on morphology and ultrastructure, a new genus was described. For its characteristic spore structure the isolate was named Piriformospora indica. Electron microscopy revealed the presence of typical dolipores with continuous parenthesomes, which indicated that P indica belongs to the Hymenomycetes (Basidiomycota). DNA was extracted and the 5' end of the 18S rRNA was amplified and sequenced. Comparison with sequences from the Genbank data base indicated that P indica is related to the Rhizoctonia group.

Natural Products from Plant-Associated Microorganisms: Distribution, Structural Diversity, Bioactivity, and Implications of Their Occurrence

“…101 When the cereal model plant barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) was infected with P. indica it was found to have several beneficial effects including the growth-promoting activity resulting in enhanced barley grain yield, amended tolerance to mild salt stress, and conferred resistance in barley against root and leaf pathogens. 102 Further studies have demonstrated that the systematically altered "defense readiness" of barley by this endophyte is associated with an elevated antioxidative capacity due to an activation of the glutathioneascorbate cycle, and that the endophyte might induce systemic disease resistance by an as yet unknown signaling pathway, probably involving a small molecule natural product.…”

On publishing in Mycorrhiza

“…While mycorrhizas are taxonomically, morphologically/anatomically, and physiologically highly diverse (Imhof 2009) and thereby are difficult to define inclusively, they are metaphorically akin to Bpornography^in United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's famous line, BI know it when I see it.^While all mycorrhiza researchers recognize the conventionally-accepted major types of mycorrhizas, separating root endophytes from them can be challenging. In order to keep the journal focused on its namesake Bmycorrhiza,^we no longer will entertain manuscripts solely about Piriformospora indica (Verma et al 1998) or Bdark-septate endophytes (DSE) ( Jumpponen and Trappe 1998;notwithstanding Jumpponen 2001) unless they have been studied in combination with conventional mycorrhizas. On the other hand, we do wish to foster continuing evaluation of Bwhat is a mycorrhiza( e.g., Orchard et al 2017).…”

Beneficial microbiomes: Biodiversity and potential biotechnological applications for sustainable agriculture and human health

“…The population and abundances of rhizospheric microbes have been affected by several factors such as soil type, soil pH, and other environmental conditions surrounding any plants. A number of microbial species belonging to different genera such as Acinetobacter, Arthrobacter, Aspergillus, Azospirillum, Bacillus, Burkholderia, Enterobacter, Flavobacterium, Haloarcula, Halococcus, Haloferax, Methylobacterium, Paenibacillus, Penicillium, Piriformospora, Pseudomonas, Rhizobium, and Serratia were revealed from the rhizosphere of different crop plants [12,[17][18][19][20][21][22].…”