World Journal of
Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences

ISOLATION AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF NEUROSPORA CRASSA AN ENDOPHYTIC FUNGUS ISOLATED FROM TERMINALIA ARJUNA

Sandip T. Pendam* and Narendra H. Shahare

ABSTRACT

Endophytic fungi are ubiquitous in nature and play an essential role in balancing the microenvironments of the host tissues. In this study, endophytic fungus Neurospora crassa was isolated from the ethnomedicinal plant Terminalia arjuna. Endophytic fungi live inside the tissues of mature plants without causing any harm to the host tissue. T. arjuna has been known as important ethnomedicinal plant employed for cardiovascular problems, high blood pressure and hypertension. For the study, the leaf and bark tissues of the host plant were selected for the isolation purpose, the pure culture obtained during the study was labelled as ANF4 and used for morphological and molecular characterization. The morphological colony characteristics study suggested the culture belonging to Neurospora sp.; The phylogenetic relationship was determined by r-DNA-based phylogenetic markers ITS (Internal Transcribed Spacers) with the help of phylogenetic tools. The present study aimed to the similarity of endophyte Neurospora crassa (sample -ANF4) isolated from Terminalia arjuna using ITS molecular marker. The dendrogram obtained from the data showed that hierarchical clustering separated the isolates into two groups. The results showed the highest similarity of Neurospora crassa. The sample that was labelled as ANF4 was found to be Neurospora crassa, and showed high similarity based on nucleotide homology and phylogenetic analysis.

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