Isolation And Identification Of Fusarium Spp. From Agarwood And Their Pathogenicity Test On Aquilaria Subintegra

Gaharu merupakan damar hitam yang kebanyakannya dihasilkan oleh tumbuhan Aquilaria dari famili Thymelaeaceae. Gaharu digunakan secara meluas dalam industri kemenyan, perubatan dan minyak wangi di seluruh dunia. Pengeluaran gaharu sebenarnya adalah hasil daripada kecederaan dan/atau jangkitan mikrob, terutamanya kulat. Kajian ini dijalankan untuk memencilkan dan mengenal pasti kulat yang berasosiasi dengan pembentukan gaharu berdasarkan ciri morfologi dan molekul, serta untuk menilai keberkesanan kaedah inokulasi tiruan yang berbeza untuk mendorong pembentukan gaharu. Sejumlah 135 pencilan kulat diperoleh daripada sampel gaharu dari beberapa lokasi yang berbeza di sekitar Semenanjung Malaysia. Berdasarkan pengenalan morfologi, 13 genus kulat dikenal pasti di mana genus yang paling kerap dipencilkan adalah Fusarium, diikuti oleh Aspergillus, Lasiodiplodia dan Colletotrichum. Bergantung kepada genus kulat, jujukan DNA daripada tiga gen iaitu kawasan transkipsi dalaman (ITS), faktor pemanjangan translasi 1-alpha (tef1-α) dengan β-tubulin telah digunakan untuk menentukan identiti spesies kulat dengan lebih lanjut. Keputusan analisis molekul adalah berpadanan dengan pengecaman morfologi. Agarwood is a dark resin which is mainly produced by Aquilaria plants from the family Thymelaeaceae. Agarwood is widely used in incense, medicinal and perfumery industries worldwide. Production of agarwood is actually the result of wounding and/or infection of microbes, particularly fungi. This study was conducted to isolate and identify fungi associated with agarwood formation based on morphological and molecular characteristics, as well as to evaluate the efficacy of different artificial inoculation methods in inducing agarwood formation. A total of 135 fungal isolates were obtained from agarwood samples from several different locations around Peninsular Malaysia. Based on morphological identification, 13 genera of fungi were identified whereby the most common genera were Fusarium, followed by Aspergillus, Lasiodiplodia and Colletotrichum. Depending on the fungal genera, DNA sequences of three genes namely internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, translation elongation factor 1-alpha (tef1-α) and β-tubulin genes were applied to provide further confirmation of the fungal identities. Results of the molecular analysis have corresponded to the morphological identification