Informatics Publishing Limited

Izumi Okane ¹, Akira Nakagiri ²

Affiliations
1 University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8572, JP
2 Fungus/Mushroom Resource and Research Center, Tottori University, 4-101 Koyama Minami, Tottori 680-8553, JP

Abstract

We studied assemblages of endophytic fungi on the halophilic plant Salicornia europaea in Japan. This plant is disjunctively distributed in the eastern Hokkaido and the Seto Inland Sea (Setouchi) regions. Various dematiaceous fungi that form dark spores and/or mycelia (and the related ascigerous stages) were common in S. europaea. Among them, Pleospora sp. (anamorph: Stemphylium) and Alternaria alternata were the major endophytes found in the plant, followed by Alternaria phragmospora and Cladosporium cladosporioides. Fungal assemblages from Hokkaido were similar among years, as were assemblages collected in completely segregated regions in Japan, Hokkaido and Setouchi. While such dematiaceous fungi are generally known to be epiphytes living on the surface of terrestrial vascular plants, they may ubiquitously inhabit halophytes such as Salicornia.

Keywords

Dematiaceous Fungi, Endophytic Fungi, Halophytes, Salicornia europaea.

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