Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Endophytic flora plays a vital role in the colonization and survival of host plants, especially in harsh environments, such as arid regions.
This flora may, however, contain pathogenic species responsible for various troublesome host diseases. The present study is aimed at investigating the diversity of both cultivable and non-cultivable endophytic fungal floras in the internal tissues roots and leaves of Tunisian date palm trees Phoenix dactylifera.
Accordingly, 13 isolates from both root and leaf samples, exhibiting distinct colony morphology, were selected from potato dextrose agar PDA medium and identified by a sequence match search wherein their 18Sβ28S internal transcribed spacer ITS sequences were compared to those available in public databases. These findings revealed that the cultivable root and leaf isolates fell into two groups, namely Nectriaceae and Pleosporaceae.
Restriction fragment length polymorphism RFLP analysis of the ITS from fungal clones leaves: ; roots: using Hae III restriction enzyme revealed 13 distinct patterns that were further sequenced and led to the identification of Alternaria , Cladosporium , Davidiella Cladosporium teleomorph , Pythium , Curvularia , and uncharacterized fungal endophytes.
Both approaches confirmed that while the roots were predominantly colonized by Fusaria members of the Nectriaceae family , the leaves were essentially colonized by Alternaria members of the Pleosporaceae family. The date palm Phoenix dactylifera is a multi-purpose plant species typically grown in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world and is globally valued for its nutritional and health-promoting fruit.
