Biodiversity of endophytic fungi associated with the medicinal plant Nothapodytes foetida of Agumbe forest was determined and evaluated for its microbial activity. A total of 170 endophytic isolates were obtained from leaf, stem, seed, and fruit tissues of Nothapodytes foetida. The dominant endophytic fungi belong to genera Fusarium, Penicillium, Aspergillus, and Colletotrichum. Maximum endophytic isolates were obtained from leaves segments followed by fruit, stem, and seed tissues. Hyphomycetes were the dominant group found with 75.29% over other fungal groups. Shannon-Weiner and Simpson indexes showed rich diversity of endophytic fungi suggesting even and uniform occurrence of various species. 88.57%, 74.28%, 62.85%, and 65.71% of isolates have shown activity against Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853), Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922), and Candida albicans (ATCC 69548), respectively. One of the isolate NFX 06 isolated from leaf has showed considerable antimicrobial activity against all the test pathogens. It was identified as Fusarium oxysporum by ITS sequence analysis; the nucleotide sequence was submitted in the GenBank with an accession number KC914432. Phylogenetic relationship confirmed that the strain F. oxysporum NFX 06 has evolved from an endophytic ancestor. 1. Introduction Endophytes are microbes that colonize living, internal tissues of plants without causing any immediate, overt negative effect [1]. Endophytic fungi represent an important and quantifiable component of fungal diversity, with an estimate of at least 1 million species [2–4]. They are found in nearly all plant families including bryophytes [5], pteridophytes [6], gymnosperms [7], and both monocotyledonous [8] and dicotyledonous angiosperms [9, 10]. Endophytic fungal community has been found in plants living in a unique ecosystem [11], which can be a source for a variety of bioactive metabolites such as antibiotics, antimycotics, immunosuppressants, and anticancer compounds [12]. The discovery of novel antimicrobial metabolites from endophytes is an important alternative to overcome the increasing levels of drug resistance by plant and human pathogens [13–15]. The antimicrobial compounds can be used as drugs and also as food preservatives in the control of food spoilage and foodborne diseases [16]. Thus there is a huge interest across the world to determine the biodiversity of endophytic mycoflora within the host for its novel and undescribed species [17, 18]. In this study an attempt has been made to isolate the endophytic mycoflora of N.
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