An annotated checklist of microbes associated with bamboo in the Indian subcontinent

Abstract

In India, the area occupied by bamboo is found to be around 1,003 hectares with about 23 genera and 128 species. The most common and economically important bamboo species are Bambusa bambos, B. nutans, B. tulda, B. vulgaris, Dendrocalamus hamiltonii, D. strictus, Ochlandra travancorica and Melacona baccifera. The present paper deals with the appraisal of the bamboo microbes in India encountered on different species of bamboo, along with their taxonomic status, the details of diseases/infection, and the location of reporting and the author. Records of association of microbes/ pathogens on bamboo are scattered in a wide array of journals, books and dissertations. Hence, this comprehensive checklist of microbes associated with bamboo in India has been prepared. This review documents the data of the known 432 microbes associated with bamboo belonging to 12 phyla and 46 orders. The fungal associations have diverse habits- as saprobes, pathogens and also as symbionts. Pathogens belonging to the phylum Deuteromycota were the highest (39.35%), followed by 26.85% in Ascomycota and 20.83% in Basidiomycota. Some of the phyla had pathogens causing various diseases. The highest record of the foliage disease incidence was 40.99% and 24.12% respectively by pathogenic ‘Ascomycota’ and ‘Deuteromycota’. Among Basidiomycota, pathogens causing culm diseases were the highest (26.25%), 66.66% of pathogens belonging to Phylum Proteobacteria were responsible for causing infection of seeds. Among the viral diseases, foliage diseases were more (75%). Myxomycetes were observed to cause the decay and deterioration of bamboo culms upto about 54.54%. It was observed that fungal isolates belonging to the order Moniliales dominated in causing foliage diseases (22.75%), culm diseases (25.36%), and nursery diseases (45.1%) and also infection of seeds (77.94%).

Keywords

• bacteria
• bamboo
• checklist
• fungi
• nematode
• virus.