Linking ex planta fungi with their endophytic stages: Perisporiopsis, a common leaf litter and soil fungus, is a frequent endophyte of Hevea spp. and other plants

It has been hypothesized that endophytic fungi originate from local environmental sources, and endophyte identity and composition can be predicted based on surrounding ex planta fungi. As part of a pilot study to characterize endophytes and ex planta fungi (e.g. saprotrophs) of wild Hevea trees, endophytes were isolated with almost identical ITS sequences, but these were unidentifiable using GenBank database. Along with the endophytes, ex planta fungi on Hevea leaves were also collected at the sampling sites. The objective of this study was to determine if selected unknown Hevea endophytes could be linked with the ex planta fungi using DNA sequences. Methods included BLAST searches, phylogenetic analysis, and morphological characterizations of the endophytes and saprotrophs. Results show that the BLAST-unidentifiable Hevea endophytes belong in the fungal genus Perisporiopsis (Parodiopsidaceae, Dothideomycetes, Ascomycota). In addition, this Hevea endophyte is at least 98 % identical to >20 other sequences from GenBank, demonstrating that Perisporiopsis is a common endophyte from various plants, and a leaf litter and soil fungus. Connecting a DNA sequence with a name that has biological meaning enables microbial (i.e. fungal) biologists to make more accurate inferences about the functional ecology of a particular species in a community or ecosystem.