New record of novel endophyte Nigrograna hydei from the Northern Himalayas, India.

Abstract

The Northern Himalayas are an exceptionally unique and diverse mountain range with respect to flora, fauna and funga. However, most of the region has been poorly explored. During a mycological survey, a rare endophyte was isolated from healthy leaves of Elaeagnus angustifolia . The species was identified as Nigrograna hydei based on cultural, micro-morphological, and molecular characters. The specimen was recovered as a sterile mycelium and despite trying various sporulation-induc-ing methods, the isolate failed to sporulate. Therefore, molecular characterisation based on the sequences of both the ITS and LSU region of nuclear ribosomal DNA followed by phylogenetic analysis confirmed the identity of the taxon. So far, this species has only been reported from Thailand and China. This finding adds another record to the world distribution of the species and is the first report from the Indian subcontinent. It also expands our knowledge on its ecology through its association as an endophyte with a new host, Elaeagnus , inhabiting a cold desert in Ladakh.