American Journal of Plant Sciences, 2012, 3, 1105-1114 1105 http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ajps.2012.38133 Published Online August 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/ajps) Diversity and Biological Activities of Endophytic Fungi Associated with Micropropagated Medicinal Plant Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench Luiz H. Rosa1, Nurhayat Tabanca2, Natascha Techen2, David E. Wedge3, Zhiqiang Pan3, Ulrich R. Bernier4, James J. Becnel4, Natasha M. Agramonte4, Larry A. Walker2, Rita M. Moraes2,5 1Departamento de Microbiologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Minas Gerais, Brazil; 2National Center for Natural Products Research, Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, Oxford, USA; 3USDA-ARS, Natural Products Utilization Research Unit (NPURU), University of Mississippi, Oxford, USA; 4USDA-ARS, Center for Medical, Agricultural, and Veterinary Entomology (CMAVE), Gainesville, USA; 5Center for Water and Wetland Resources, The University of Mississippi Field Station, Abbeville, USA. Email:
[email protected],
[email protected] Received June 22nd, 2012; revised July 18th, 2012; accepted July 29th, 2012 ABSTRACT Echinacea is one of the top ten selling medicinal herbs in Europe and United States. Commercially available formula- tions may contain different plant parts of three species (Echinacea purpurea, E. pallida, and E. angustifolia). Our study evaluates the diversity of microbial community associated with healthy E. purpurea clones and their ability to produce defense compounds. We recovered and identified thirty-nine fungal endophytes through the molecular methods in 15 distinct phylotypes, which were closely related to species of the following genera Ceratobasidium, Cladosporium Col- letotrichum, Fusarium, Glomerella, and Mycoleptodiscus. These taxa were previously reported as decomposer and phy- topathogenic fungi.