Diversity of microfungi isolated from plants and leaf litters at bukit Universiti Malaysia Sabah

This study was carried out to study the distribution patterns of microftmgi from plant leaves and to compare the diversity and abundance of endophytic micro fungi between fresh and senescent leaves. Five plant species were collected from Buldt UMS, namely Dillenia suffruticosa, Elaeocarpus sp., Dioscorea sp., Symplocos polyandra, and Begonia sp., for the isolation of endophytic micro fungi. Surface sterilization method was being applied for both fresh and senescent. A total of 162 fungal endophyte isolates were documented. There were eight micro fungi genera and four unidentified species with 63 isolates from fresh leaves and 99 isolates from senescent leaves. Aspergillus was found to be the most abundant fungal genera, which constituted 27% of total isolates, followed by Fusarium and Penicillium, which constituted 23% of the total isolates respectively. There was only two isolates each of Phomopsis sp. and Pestalotiopsis sp. were recorded. Senescent leaves had a higher micro fungal abundance compared to fresh leaves. Shannon-Weiner diversity index also showed that senescent leaves had a higher diversity index, 2.897, compared to fresh leaves (2.414). Dioscorea sp. was reported to have the highest number of micro fungal isolates, which constituted 26% of the total number of isolates and the least was Dillenia suffruticosa, which constituted only 8.6% of total isolates. The fungal species was characterized according to morphological features