AUTHOR=Safaie Naser , Salehi Mina , Felegari Mona , Farhadi Siamak , Karimzadeh Samira , Asadi Sadegh , Yang Jun-Li , Naghavi Mohammad Reza 

TITLE=Culture-based diversity of endophytic fungi of three species of Ferula grown in Iran

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2024.1363158

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2024.1363158

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>A total of 1,348 endophytic fungal strains were isolated from <italic>Ferula ovina</italic>, <italic>F. galbaniflua</italic>, and <italic>F. persica</italic>. They included <italic>Eurotiales</italic> (16 species), <italic>Pleosporales</italic> (11 species), <italic>Botryosphaeriales</italic> (1 species), <italic>Cladosporiales</italic> (2 species), <italic>Helotiales</italic> (6 species), <italic>Hypocreales</italic> (31 species), <italic>Sordariales</italic> (7 species), <italic>Glomerellales</italic> (2 species), and <italic>Polyporales</italic> (1 species). <italic>F. ovina</italic> had the richest species composition of endophytic fungi, and the endophytic fungi were most abundant in their roots compared to shoots. Chao, Margalef, Shannon, Simpson, Berger–Parker, Menhinick, and Camargo indices showed that <italic>F. ovina</italic> roots had the most endophytic fungal species. The frequency distribution of fungal species isolated from <italic>Ferula</italic> spp. fell into the log-series model, and <italic>F. ovina</italic> roots had the highest Fisher alpha. The dominance indices showed that there are no dominant species in the endophytic fungal community isolated from <italic>Ferula</italic> spp., indicating community stability. Evenness values were 0.69, 0.90, 0.94, and 0.57 for endophytic fungi isolated from <italic>F. ovina</italic> roots, <italic>F. ovina</italic> shoots, <italic>F. galbaniflua</italic> roots, and <italic>F. persica</italic> roots, respectively, indicating a species distribution that tends toward evenness. The fungal species community isolated from each of <italic>F. ovina</italic> roots, <italic>F. ovina</italic> shoots, <italic>F. galbaniflua</italic> roots, and <italic>F. persica</italic> roots was a diverse species group originating from a homogeneous habitat. Their distribution followed a log-normal distribution, suggesting that the interactions of numerous independent environmental factors multiplicatively control species abundances. Principal component analysis showed that the highest species diversity and dominance were observed in the endophytic fungal community isolated from <italic>F. ovina</italic> and <italic>F. persica</italic> roots, respectively.</p>