ISOLATION, MOLECULAR IDENTIFICATION AND BIOACTIVE POTENTIAL OF ENDOPHYTIC FUNGI ISOLATED FROM Prunus armeniaca.

Abstract

Main goal of this research project is to isolate endophytic fungi of Prunus armeniaca, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, and evaluate the biological potential of isolated endophytes by using their crude extract, one of the least-studied areas that has received virtually no attention in terms of endophytic fungi. Plant specimens were collected for the study from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad during the monsoon season (July to September 2020). The characterization of fungi has used a variety of identification tools. Macro morphological descriptions of the species were based on the appearance of fungal colonies i.e. colony color, colony shape, colony diameter, colony margins, texture, opacity of colony and topography. Microscopic characters of fungi i.e., conidiogenous cells, conidia were analyzed by mounting material from colonies growing on PDA on glass slides using various chemicals and molecular characterization involved amplifying the rDNA-ITS region with a couple of primers, namely ITS1F and ITS4, and creating a phylogenetic tree to show their closest relationships. To evaluate the biological potential of isolated endophytic fungi, crude extract was prepared in the organic solvent ethyl acetate. Total phenolic content, total flavonoid content and antioxidant assay were done to evaluate the biological potential of isolated endophytic fungi. From combined morphological and molecular characterization, our research results into the identification of the four species belonging to three order, three families and four genera. The species belongs to genus Talaromyces, Pseudofusicoccum, Aalternaria and Aspergillus. From phylogenetic analysis 2 species Talaromyces dimorphus and Pseudofusicoccum adansoniae are new records for Pakistan. Our research showed that Prunus armeniaca contains a wide variety of endophytic fungi, but no work has been done to document these endophytes and the plant need to be discovered for more worthy species of diverse fungi group. This is the ever first research project of the plant regarding endophytic fungi exploration