Molecular identification of endophyte fungi of the medicinal plant Podophyllum peltatum (Taxomyces andreanae)

As seen with the example of Taxomyces andreanae, endophyte fungi of medicinal plants can serve as important sources of medicinal compounds when the source plant has limited availability. Since endophyte fungi are not studied extensively, they may also provide new leads to therapeutic activities both related and unrelated to the original source plant. The endophyte fungi of a known medicinal plant, Podophyllum peltatum, were studied as sources of previously identified target compounds and for new antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities. The endophytic fungi were cultured from the plant tissue and subcultures were made. Six of the fungal specimens were used for molecular identification via DNA extraction, PCR amplification, vector cloning, and dideoxy nucleotide sequencing. Sequences were also produced by MIDI Labs using a proprietary method. The obtained nucleotide sequences were compared to previously published sequences on GENBANK and other similar databases. Base on the MIDI results, all six matched with previously published data with high correlations, while the three sequences produced in-house matched with low validity.