Microbial biodiversity associated with the walnut Juglans regia L. in South Tyrol (Italy)

Document Type

Article

Source

Mitteilungen Klosterneuburg

ISSN

0007-5922

Volume

59

First Page

24

Last Page

30

Publication Date

2009

Department

Natural Sciences and Mathematics

Abstract

The endophytic and epiphytic microflora from walnut trees in South Tyrol (Northern Italy) was analyzed. A total of 16 trees from 8 sites were sampled at three dates during the warm season (May, July and September) in 2005, using plant material from three different tissue types (leaves, fruit and lignified twigs). Samples were either transferred directly onto nutrient medium or surface sterilized prior to plating to distinguish between epiphytic and endophytic growth. A total of 3,880 culturable isolates were obtained, the vast majority of the isolates (3,742) belonging to fungi (96.4%); only 138 (3.6%) were bacteria. Fungal isolates were classified into 30 genera, Alternaria, Penicillium, Phoma, Botryosphaeria, Fusarium, Cladosporium, Phyllosticta and Epicoccum being the most common taxa. Although epiphytic growth predominated (73.9% of the identified isolates), a significant number of endophytes (26.1%) were isolated as well. More isolates were obtained from leaves (45.3%) than from twigs (31.8%) and fruit (23.0%). Seasonal effects were not very distinct, but a tendency towards higher isolation success in September was observed.

Rights

Copyright © 2009 Mitteilungen Klosterneuburg. All rights reserved.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS