Antimicrobial activity of endophytic fungi associated with halophytic species Salsola vermiculata

Abstract

Endophytic fungi are known for their production of bioactive compounds with antibacterial and antifungal activity. In this study, an evaluation of the antibacterial and antifungal activity of endophytic fungi isolated from Salsola vermiculata, a halophyte species collected from Chott el Hodna, M'sila (Algeria) was carried out. The eleven isolated endophytic fungi were identified as belonging to the genera Alternaria sp., Aureobasidium sp., Phoma sp., Chrysosporium sp., Fusarium sp., Aspergillus sp., Papulaspora sp., Ulocladium sp., Humicola sp. and Pencillium sp. The antimicrobial activity of endophyte isolates was tested against phytopathogenic fungi and pathogenic bacteria using the dual culture and the agar plug diffusion methods respectively. The higher percentage inhibition of 79% was obtained by the isolate Penicillium sp. 1 against Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. ciccri. All isolated endophytic fungi showed antibacterial activity against at least one pathogenic bacterium, the greatest effect was obtained by Fusarium sp. against Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853 and Bacillus cereus ATCC 10876 with inhibition zones of 26.33 and 25.33 mm respectively. After the comparison of the means of the zones of inhibition, the isolate Chrysosporium sp. was the most active against all pathogenic bacteria with average inhibition zones of 20.55 mm. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7036033

Keywords

• Salsola vermiculata
• Antibacterial activity
• Endophytic fungi
• Antifungal activity