Diversity of litter degrading microfungi from the forests of Western Ghats, India

Abstract

The forests of Western Ghats, are a treasure house for new and interesting fungi. Tropical forests produce a large amount of litter which is a favoured source of nutrient for fungal colonization. Fungi are the major degraders of plant litter which is basically composed of cellulose and lignin. Plant litter is divided into leaf litter, branch litter, bark litter, fruit litter, flower litter and seed litter. Litter fungi play a major role in carbon and nitrogen cycling in forest ecosystem. In an attempt to document the biodiversity of litter fungi of the region, litter samples were collected from different places in Goa and some parts of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamilnadu and Maharashtra. The fungi were isolated and cultured by direct isolation, moist chamber incubation and particle filtration methods. In all, 230 litter fungi belonging to 164 genera of hyphomycetes, ascomycetes and coelomycetes were isolated. These included several rare and interesting species in the monotypic genera like Bibanasiella, Cheiromyceopsis, Esdipatilia, Gliophragma, Megacapitula, Morrisiella, Paradictyoarthrinium, Pseudogliophragma and Venustosynnema. New species belonging to Dendryphiopsis, Digitoramispora, Natarajania, Spondylocladiopsis, Stauriella, Tetraploa and Vamsapriya have been recorded. The study further deals with the distribution of the fungi in the Western Ghats region of Goa.