Volume 21 (2018) Article 16

Sequence-based identification and characterisation of cultivated filamentous fungi in the Alan Bunga peat ecosystems of Sarawak, Malaysia

by Z. Ayob, N.A. Kusai and S.R.A. Ali

Published online: 13.08.2018

Summary

The identification of cultivated fungal isolates using multiple primer set approaches reveals a lot of information on how soil fungi change as land use changes in tropical peat swamp forest ecosystems. This study aimed to identify the cultivated species of fungi from three different Alan Bunga peat swamp forest ecosystems: secondary forest, logged-over secondary forest, and 3.5 years after oil palm planting. A total of 45 fungal isolates were cultivated on two different types of media (potato dextrose agar [PDA] and malt extract agar [MEA]), and subsequently amplified using two different primer sets, namely ITS (ITS1/ITS4) and 18S rDNA (EF4/fung5). The morphological characteristics of fungal isolates were examined under a light microscope. Forty-two fungal isolates were successfully verified by PCR and DNA sequencing. The majority of the cultivated fungal species belonged to the phylum Ascomycota; one was from the Basidiomycota. Trichoderma asperellum (34 %) was the commonest fungal species detected in secondary forest using ITS primer whereas Aspergillus fumigatus (22 %) was the commonest using 18S rDNA primer. In conclusion, the ITS1/ITS4 primer set showed greater accuracy than the EF4/fung5 primer set in identification of the fungal taxonomic groups to species level.

Citation

Ayob, Z., Kusai, N.A. & Ali, S.R.A. (2018): Sequence-based identification and characterisation of cultivated filamentous fungi in the Alan Bunga peat ecosystems of Sarawak, Malaysia. Mires and Peat, 21(16), 1-19. (Online: http://www.mires-and-peat.net/pages/volumes/map21/map2116.php); 10.19189/MaP.2018.OMB.331

Reviewers

IMCG and IPS acknowledge the work of the reviewers.