A record of Muscodor albus, an endophyte from Myristica fragrans in Thailand

Abstract

Isolate MFC2 is identified as Muscodor albus, an endophyte residing in the cambium of Myristica fragrans, a nutmeg tree in Thailand. This strain is characterized by the production of a whitish felt-like mycelium on PDA. It develops no fruiting structures on water agar containing sterile pieces of the host plants and other media. The MFC2 isolate is related to the family of Xylariaceae based upon 92% similarity of ITS1, 5.8S rDNA, and ITS2 sequences of Xylaria arbuscula and Hypoxylon fragiforme. High similarities of ITS1, 5.8S rDNA, and ITS2 sequences showed that the isolate MFC2 is taxonomically related to M. albus, M. roseus, and M. vitigenus by virtue of 99%, 99% and 92% homology, respectively. For GC/MS volatile fingerprinting, M. albus isolate MFC2 produces volatile compounds which are some of the major components of the volatiles of M. albus, i.e., propanoic acid and ethanol. M. albus, M. roseus and M. vitigenus each primarily produce naphthalene either exclusively or in combination with naphthalene derivatives while MFC2 mainly produces bulnesene, ledol, (-)-globulol and a number of other azulene derivatives. Because of its DNA homologies, the whitish nature of the mycelium and some similarities in the volatile compounds that are produced, the organism is recorded here as the MFC2 strain of M. albus.