Diversity and functions of endophytic fungi associated with roots and leaves of Stipa purpurea in an alpine steppe at Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Stipa purpurea is a unique and dominant herbaceous plant species in the alpine steppe and meadows on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP). In this work, we analyzed the composition and diversity of the culturable endophytic fungi in S. purpurea according to morphological and molecular identification. Then, we investigated the bioactivities of these fungi against plant pathogenic fungi and ACC deaminase activities. A total of 323 fungal isolates were first isolated from S. purpurea, and 33 fungal taxa were identified by internal transcribed spacer primers and grouped into Ascomycota. The diversity of endophytic fungi in S. purpurea was significantly higher in roots as compared to leaves. In addition, more than 40% of the endophytic fungi carried the gene encoding for the ACC deaminase gene. The antibiosis assay demonstrated that 29, 35, 28, 37 and 34 isolates (43.9, 53.1, 42.4, 56.1 and 51.5%) were antagonistic to five plant pathogens fungi, respectively. Our study provided the first assessment of the diversity of culture-depending endophytic fungi of S. purpurea, demonstrated the potential application of ACC deaminase activity and antifungal activities with potential benefits to the host plant, and contributed to high biomass production and adaptation of S. purpurea to an adverse environment.