XVI International Botanical Congess
Many fungal endophytes isolated from Livistona chinensis were unidentifiable due to lack of sporulation. Of the 778 isolates, 16.5% were mycelia sterilia (MS) and grouped into morphospecies based on colony morphology. Twenty morphospecies were selected for molecular identification. Regions within the ribosomal DNA were sequenced and aligned with reference sequences from GenBank. Alignment of the 5.8S gene was used for the approximate placement at the phylum or supra-ordinal level, while both the 5.8S gene and ITS sequences were used for placement at lower taxonomic levels. Based on these sequence analyses, 10 isolates were disposed to the genera, Diaporthe, Mycosphaerella, Xylaria and Beauveria, and 10 to the ordinal level, Xylariales and Dothideales. The novelty of this approach, its limitations and potential will be discussed.