Site and Organ-Specific Culture-Dependent Endophytic Diversity of Crocus sativus L. (Saffron) in Kashmir Himalaya, India

Jan, Bushra; Reshi, Zafar A.; Mohiddin, F. A.

doi:10.1007/s00248-021-01817-5

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…This confirms our previous hypothesis wherein we have reported that the mycobiome of cormosphere is dynamic and changes at each growth stage ( Ambardar et al., 2016 ). Interestingly, studies on endophytic fungi of the saffron plant also report Ascomycota as a dominant endophytic fungal group ( Wani et al., 2016 ; Belfiori et al., 2021 ; Jan et al., 2022 ). Ambardar et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The formula H′ = − Σ(Pi × InPi), where Pi denotes the proportional abundance of fungal isolates in a specific location, was used to calculate Shannon’s H′ diversity index ( Ricotta, 2002 ). The relative abundance was estimated as a percentage of a fungal isolate belonging to a specific species/group as compared to the total number of isolates ( Jan et al., 2022 ). All the diversity analyses were performed using PAST 3.04 software ( Hammer et al., 2001 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Injury and not the pathogen is the primary cause of corm rot in Crocus sativus (saffron)

et al. 2023

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Fusarium oxysporum has been reported to be the most devastating pathogen of Crocus sativus L., a commercially significant crop that yields the saffron spice. However, most of the pathogen isolations have been done from the diseased tissue, mostly from rotten corms, but no study has been conducted on diseased saffron fields. To fill the knowledge gap, the current study was carried out with the intention of recording the diversity of cultivable fungus species from saffron fields and screening them for pathogenicity towards saffron. The three study locations in Jammu and Kashmir, Srinagar (Pampore), Kishtwar, and Ramban, yielded a total of 45 fungal isolates. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of rDNA was used for the molecular identification. ITS rDNA-based sequence analysis classified all the operational taxonomic units (OTUs) into two phyla—Ascomycota (88.88%) and Mucoromycota (11.11%). Moreover, Fusarium (57.77%), Geotrichum (17.77%), Mucor (11.11%), Aspergillus (4.44%), Trichoderma (4.44%), Galactomyces (2.22%), and Colletotrichum (2.22%) all had different total abundances at the genus level. It was discovered that the saffron fields in Srinagar have fewer varied fungal species than the other two selected sites. All of the fungal isolates isolated including Fusarium solani, Aspergillus flavus, Trichoderma harzianum, Fusarium neocosmosporiellum, and Mucor circinelloides were pathogenic according to the pathogenicity test; however, injury to the saffron plant was found to be a must. These fungi were pathogenic in addition to F. oxysporum, which is well documented as a major cause of saffron corm rot diseases in Srinagar, but in the present study, injury was a must for F. oxysporum as well. The percentage disease severity index for both saffron roots and corms varied for each fungal isolate.

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