Isolation, identification and biodiversity of endophytic fungi o Thymus

Endophytes are considered as an important source of bioactive natural products because thesemicroorganisms are able to occupy unique biological niches and grow in non-ordinaryenvironments. Therefore, endophytic fungi of medicinal plants can be developed for medicinalapplications. On the other hand, medicinal properties of plant can be ascribed to its endophyticfungi. Thymus sp. is widely used as a medicinal plant. In this research, the endophyticmicroflora of the plant was studied. In order to isolate endophytic fungi, 800 segments of 6Thymus species were collected from its natural habitats in Hamedan province (Iran) andmedicinal plants garden during the seasons of spring, summer and fall 2011. Finally, 95 isolatesconsisting of 11 different fungal genera, 6 yeast isolates and 19 infertile mycelium wereobtained. Among the identified isolates, the most abundant genera were Alternaria, Phoma, andFusarium. The above mentioned genera and the genera of Cladosporium and Colletorichumwere first reported from Thymus in Iran. The genera Curvularia, Cylindrocarpon, Drecheslra,Aspergillus, Stemphylium and Ulocladium were also, first reported from Thymus in the world.