Many medicinal plants possess antimicrobial activities, and have antagonistic endophytic fungi that help
them protect from pathogen attack. The aim of this study was to examine endophytic fungi in traditional
Chinese medicinal plants, and understand if these organisms have antimicrobial activities and they can be
potentially used for biological control of plant diseases. A total of 208 endophytic fungal isolates were
collected from stems (83), leaves (121) and flowers (4) of 26 medicinal plant species. The majority of the
isolates belonged to Alternaria, Phomopsis, Colletotrichum, Phoma and Acremonium as well as several species
allocated to Mycelia sterilia. A detached leaf assay was conducted by testing these isolates on wheat
powdery mildew (Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici, or Bgt). Fifteen isolates of endophytic fungi inhibited
Bgt, exhibiting control efficacies ranging from 65.4% to 100%. Of these isolates, LPS-1, SCS-6 and 16-6,
exhibited significant inhibition of Bgt proliferation (>90%). Isolate LPS-1 isolated from the stem of Ilex
cornuta Lindl. ex Paxt. had the highest efficacy, resulting in 100% inhibition of Bgt growth on detached leaf
segments. Based on morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analyses of the ITS rDNA sequences
and translation elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF-1a) gene regions, LPS-1 was identified as Lasiodiplodia
pseudotheobromae. A range of culture conditions for LPS-1 were examined and the results indicated that
optimal antifungal activity resulted from static cultures in PDB (pH 7.0) inoculated with three mycelial
plugs and incubated at 30 C for 6 days. With further study, LPS-1 can be a candidate for biological control.
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