Diversity of Endophytic fungi in liana, Celastrus paniculatus collected from few sites of Jhargram and Paschim Medinipur districts, West Bengal, India

To determine the identity and diversity of endophytic fungi associated with the liana from five different forest localities of Jhargram and West Medinipur districts of West Bengal. On the basis of differentiation of weather and microclimate, I have to select the regions. Between the two regions, the distance is at least 25-30 km, the microclimate and moisture under the canopy will differ, it affects mainly on the presence of endophytes. Leaf, fruit and stem segments were collected randomly in summer, winter and monsoon in 2018. It is impossible to take all leaves and other organs of a plant because plant parts should be collected sustainably so that minimum damage of stock occurs. Surfaces of all samples were sterilised just before putting on pot5ato dextrose agar (PDA) media for the growth of endophytic fungal mycelia and their isolation. Fungi were isolated and identified based on the morphology of its colony, and mycelial form and morphology, sexual and asexual reproductive structures and their characters, spore-form and nature of attachment, cultural conditions etc. were taken in consideration to identify them. Total 1125 samples were used for endophytic growth. The total of 1558 endophytic fungi were isolated from 797 sample segments of Celastrus paniculatus. The dominant endophytic fungi belong to genera Fusarium sp., Aspergillus sp., Chaetomium sp., Beltrania sp., Pestalotiopsis sp., Verticillium sp., Arthrinium sp, Penicillium sp., Podospora sp., Alternarium sp., Acrocylindrium sp. etc. Maximum endophytic isolates were obtained from leaf segments followed by fruit and then stem. In monsoon, colonization frequency shows highest (80.53%) and in summer, it is lowest (61.87%) from the plant samples of all locations. The examples from Chilkigarh shows the highest colonization frequency (90.22%) and from Nayagram, it is the lowest (61.78%). The leaf’s colonization frequency is maximum (84.53%) and the stem is minimum (62.4%). Most of the isolated endophytic fungi were found under the group Deuteromycetes. Endophytic fungi show a wide range of Shannon-Weiner and Simpson’s indices. These indicators point to an equal and throughout distribution of different species. The findings add to our knowledge of the identity and diversity of endophytic fungi, which are expected to have a variety of interactions with their host plants.