Fungal Microbes Associated with Agarwood Formation

Abstract

Agarwood is studied as the resinous secondary metabolites produced by the natural microbial infection. The current study investigated the range of microbial infection in agarwood trees collected from various parts of India. A total of 17 isolates were collected and identified based on the morphological and molecular studies. The study revealed that the agarwood was naturally infected with Aspergillus, Lasiodiploidia, Chaetomium, Fusarium and Penicillium species. Further studies on enzyme activities involved in the pathogenesis process showed the higher cellulase, ligninolytic and laccase activities in Aspergillus isolate AR13 when compared to other isolates. The current study has offered a potential opportunity to further strengthen the research on possible development of microbial strains for artificial inoculation in agar trees to induce agarwood formation.