Biodiversity Of Endophytic Fungi from Marine Algae and Its Phylogenetic Studies

Abstract

The selection of marine algae and surface sterilization is the critical part while working with endophytic fungus isolation. In this present investigation six green algae and three brown algae were collected from Thoonithurai, Mandapam, Rameswaram, India. Around 68 fungal endophytes were isolated from selected algae and the fungi. It was observed that colonization rate was high in Ceratophyllum submersum L. and low in Ulva intestinalis L. The Shannon Diversity Index were calculated was 1.77 and Shannon Equitability index was 0.99. Based on morphological identification strains were selected and further identified by 18 s r DNA ITS region sequencing analysis. The BLAST analysis result identified the closest strain from NCBI database. Out of 19 strains , six strains belonged to Ascomycota family while other endophytes were unidentified due to low sequence homology in NCBI database. The current research showed a fungal diversity among green and brown algae in Gulf of Mannar coastal range and also it act as a pioneer source of drug discovery against Multi Drug Resistance.