J. Microbiol. Biotechnol. (2014), 24(9), 1149–1161 http://dx.doi.org/10.4014/jmb.1402.02035 Research Article Review jmb Diversity of Endophytic Fungi from Different Verticillium-Wilt-Resistant Gossypium hirsutum and Evaluation of Antifungal Activity Against Verticillium dahliae In Vitro Zhi-Fang Li†, Ling-Fei Wang†, Zi-Li Feng, Li-Hong Zhao, Yong-Qiang Shi, and He-Qin Zhu* State Key Laboratory of Cotton Biology, Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Anyang, Henan 455000, P. R. China Received: February 18, 2014 Revised: May 16, 2014 Cotton plants were sampled and ranked according to their resistance to Verticillium wilt. In Accepted: May 16, 2014 total, 642 endophytic fungi isolates representing 27 genera were recovered from Gossypium hirsutum root, stem, and leaf tissues, but were not uniformly distributed. More endophytic fungi appeared in the leaf (391) compared with the root (140) and stem (111) sections. First published online However, no significant difference in the abundance of isolated endophytes was found among May 19, 2014 resistant cotton varieties. Alternaria exhibited the highest colonization frequency (7.9%), *Corresponding author followed by Acremonium (6.6%) and Penicillium (4.8%). Unlike tolerant varieties, resistant and Phone: +86-372-2562280; susceptible ones had similar endophytic fungal population compositions. In three Fax: +86-372-2562280; Verticillium-wilt-resistant cotton varieties, fungal endophytes from the genus Alternaria were E-mail:
[email protected] most frequently isolated, followed by Gibberella and Penicillium. The maximum concentration † These authors contributed of dominant endophytic fungi was observed in leaf tissues (0.1797). The evenness of stem equally to this work.