FRESENIUS ENVIRONMENTAL BULLETIN, cilt.29, sa.5, ss.3505-3516, 2020 (SCI-Expanded)
Fungal endophytes are epiphytic or systemic microorganisms living on plant tissues during part or all of their life cycles without causing harm to their hosts. They have been described as mutualists that enhance their host resistance against abiotic stresses, diseases, insects and mammalian herbivores by producing a broad range of fungal metabolites. Recently, these organisms have attracted extensive attention of the scientist due to their potential properties in biological control of diseases and pests. In this study, endophytic fungi were isolated from 122 turfgrass plants belonging to 7 different turfgrass species at 8 different provinces in Turkey. The ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 regions of each isolate were amplified, sequenced and performed BLAST analyzes. 419 fungal isolates were classified into 40 genera in accordance with the rDNA-ITS sequences analysis. It was determined that endophytic fungi in turfgrass areas belong to a wide variety of species and most of these species were from phylum Ascomycota.