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STUDY OF DIVERSITY OF FUNGI OF MANDEEPKHOL CAVE DURING POST RAINY SEASON

SITUATED IN RAJNANDGAON, CHHATTISGARH, INDIA Arunima Karkun *, K.L. Tiwari and S.K. Jadhav

GD Rungta College of Science and Technology, Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, India

Received on: 19/04/16 Revised on: 28/06/16 Accepted on: 01/07/16 *Corresponding author E-mail: arunimakarkun@gmail.com DOI: 10.7897/2277-4343.074175 ABSTRACT Nowadays scientists are fascinated towards cave microorganisms which includes Bacteria, Fungi ,Actinomycetes etc. In Chhattisgarh state of India one unexplored cave naming Mandeepkhol is found in mountain range of Salewara nearly 100 k.m. away from Durg district. It is multi channel and temperature ranges from 26ºC- 28ºC throughout the year with the humidity 80- 90%. The cave is totally dark with less twilight zone. The microorganisms in a cave is a matter of interest. Present paper deals with the fungal diversity of the cave during post rainy season. 71 reported species with 24 genera and two sterile mycelia were isolated. Among them Deuteromycotina fungi dominated over the member of Ascomycotina and Zygomycotina. Out of total isolates 8 species (6 genera) belong to Zygomycotina, 4 species (4 genera) belong to Ascomycotina and 59 species (14 genera) belong to Deuteromycotina. Maximum numbers of species were isolated from guano deposits followed by leaf litter and log and twig deposits. Keywords: Microorganism, Fungal diversity and Mandeepkhol cave. INTRODUCTION A cave or cavern is a hollow place in the ground1. Caves form naturally by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Speleology is the science of exploration and study of all aspects of caves and the cave environment. According to Poulson and White, each cave has three zones: (i) twilight zone which is located at the entrance area; (ii) middle zone in which relative darkness prevails with fluctuating temperature; and (iii) dark zone in which total darkness and constant temperature prevails2,3. There is increasing demand in studying the cave microorganisms as they play crucial role in any biological event like recycling of organic matters, maintaining the ecological balance etc 4. The present paper deals with the study of Fungal diversity during post rainy season as at time of rainy season it is noe easily approachable. The fungi plays very important role in biodegradation as they break down tough organic materials like lignin and cellulose enabling bacteria to continue the decomposition process once most of the cellulose and lignin have been exhausted. Fungi are dominant decomposers and nutrient recyclers of forest litter and debris.5. The Mandeepkhol cave is very beautiful located in the mountain range of Salewara near copper mines Malajkhand in M.P. It is nearly 100 kilometres from district Durg and 130 kms from Raipur in Chhattisgarh. The cave is located in deep forest and is not easily approachable. It is about 30 kms from nearest township of Gandai. The cave is basically an adit cave that has a narrow entrance. Entrance is connected to mountain valleys. During rainy season a huge amount of water in form of stream flow in these valleys enters into the cave through these narrow entrances and brings twigs, logs and lot of dried leaves inside the cave and deposits there. Inside of the cave numbers of large branched tunnels are commonly found. Some of the tunnels end blind whereas some are so long that their termini could not be traced.

The Mandeepkhol cave provides shelter to large number of bats which hang from the roofs. The excreta of these bats get deposited over the floor in a very large quantity that contains high percentage of cellulose and lignin. MATERIALS AND METHOD Samples for fungal isolates were collected from the Cave during Post rainy season in the month of September. Guano deposits, log and twig deposits and leaf litters separately were collected aseptically in polythene bags. The isolation of microscopic fungi was done using potato dextrose agar media. The samples were serially diluted by method of serial dilution. Dilution of 10-3, 10-

4, 10-5 were taken. Samples were poured into petriplates containing potato dextrose agar media using micropipette. The petriplates were kept for incubation in incubator for 28ºC ± 2ºC. After incubation fungal colonies were counted and identified. Identification of fungi was done by analyzing both morphological and microscopic characters and further by help of available literature. RESULT AND DISCUSSION Post rainy season A total of 71 species belonging to 24 genera and two sterile mycelia were isolated. Among them Deuteromycotina fungi dominated over the member of Ascomycotina and Zygomycotina. Out of total isolates 8 species (6 genera) belong to Zygomycotina, 4 species (4 genera) belong to Ascomycotina and 59 species (14 genera) belong to Deuteromycotina. (Table 1).

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Table 1: Fungal isolates from different sources (post rainy season)

Name Of Fungi Guano deposits Colony number

Leaf litter deposits Colony number

Log and twig deposits Colony number

Absidia corymbifera 1 2 Choanephora cucurbitarum 1

Circinella simplex 1 Cunninghamella elegans 2 1

Mucor hemalis 1 1 Mucor racemosum 2 1 Rhizopus oryzae 1

Rhizopus stolonifer 1 Ascomycotina

Chaetomium globussum 1 2 Emericella nidulans 1 1 Talaromyces flavus 1 Thielavia basicola 2 Deuteromycotina

Acremonium persicinum 2 Acremonium strictum 2 Alternaria alternata 1 2 1

Alternaria crassa 2 1 Alternaria radicina 1 1

Alternaria spI 1 1 Aspergillus albus 2 1 1 Aspergillus astus 2

Aspergillus aureus 1 Aspergillus awamoori 2 1 1

Aspergillus flavus 2 Aspergillus fumigatus 2 1 2 Aspergillus japonicus 1 2 Aspergillus luchensis 3 1 1 Aspergillus nidulans 1

Aspergillus niger 4 2 2 Aspergillus niveus 2

Aspergillus ochraceous 2 1 Aspergillus parasiticus 2 2 1 Aspergillus phoensis 1 1

Aspergillus sclerotium 1 1 Aspergillus stellatus 1

Aspergillus sulphureus 2 1 Aspergillus sydowii 1 3 Aspergillus terreus 2 1

Aspergillus versicolor 3 Aspergillus sp I 2

Aureobasidum pullalans 2 Cladosporium cladosporides 6 10 2 Cladosporium oxysporium 8 5 2

Cladosporium-sphaerospermum 5 1 Cladosporium herbarum 1 1

Curvularia clavata 1 Curvularia geniculata 2 Curvularia pallecense 2 2

Curvularia lunata 1 1 2 Drechslera bicolor 1

Drechslera tetramer 1 Fusarium oxysporum 1 Fusarium moniliform 1 1 Fusarium caucasicum 1

Monilia sp 1 1 1 Nigrospora oryzae 2

Penicillium brevicompactum 2 2 2 Penicillium citrinum 3 4 1

Penicillium crysogenum 2 Penicillium digitatum 2

Penicillium meleagrinum var. viridiflavum 3 1 2 Penicillium multicolor 2 1 Penicillium notatum 1 Penicillium oryzae 2

Penicillium oxalicum 2 Penicillium purpogenum 1

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Penicillium rubrum 2 2 Penicillium rugulosum 2

Periconia sp 1 Phanerochaete chrysosporium 2 3

Trichoderma viridae 1 2 Trichoderma atroviridae 1 1

Mycelia sterilia Mycelia sterilia (White) 2 1

Mycelia sterilia (Orange) 1

Figure 1: Species count in post rainy season

Figure 2: Dominant fungal groups in post rainy season

Figure 3: Colony count of fungi in post rainy season

0102030405060

Guano Deposit

Leaf Litter deposit

log and twig deposits

Species count in Post rainy

season

Sample name

11% 5%

81%

3% 0%

Dominant fungal groups in post rainy season

Zygomycotina AscomycotinaDeuteromycotina Mycelia sterilia

43%

37%

20%

0%

Colony count of fungi in post rainy season

Guano Deposit Leaf Litter deposit log and twig deposits

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During post rainy season Aspergillus taxa were found dominant. The genus Aspergillus were represented by 21 species, Penicillium was represented by 12 species, Curvularia, alternaria and Cladosporium by 4 species, Fusarium and by 3 species, Dreshclera, Rhizopus, Trichoderma, Mucor and Acremonium by 2 species and Periconia, Monilia,, Choanephora cucurbatarum, Emericella nidulans, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Talaromyces flavus, Circinella simplex, Cunninghamella elegans, Absidia Corymbifera, Thielavia basicola, Nigrospora, Chaetomium globussum, Aureobasidium pullalans represented by one species. From among different resources maximum diversity was found from guano deposits (51 species from 90 colonies) followed by leaf litter deposits (47 species from 88 colonies) and logs and twigs deposits (30 species from 43 colonies) (Table 1). The results revealed that guano of bat are mostly preferred by some members of Deuteromycotina and Zygomycotina viz species of Aspergillus, Penicillium, Alternaria whereas less by leaf litter deposits and log and twig deposits. This is may be because of partially digested matter from bat guano. Similar work was observed by Arunima and her coworkers 6 and they isolated 54 species from mandeepkhol cave during summer. They observed that bat guano is mostly preferred by fungi. Koilraj 7 also studied fungal diversity inside caves of southern India. They had isolated thirty-five species of sporulating mesophilous fungi and seven types of non-sporulating fungi. Epure8 worked on bacterial and fungal assemblages of clastic sediments collected from two caves located in north-western Romania and investigated by assessing ITS and 16S rRNA gene diversity. Even bacterial diversity were also reported by Arunima9 from mandeepkhol cave where they isolated 32 bacterial species. Arunima10 and her coworker also studied the fungal diversity in Borra cave situated in Andhra Pradesh. CONCLUSION According to findings guano of bat are mostly preferred by some members of Deuteromycotina and and Zygomycotina viz. species of Aspergillus, Penicillium. This can be because of higher percentage of partially digested organic matter. On the other hand the members of Deuteromycotina viz Alternaria, Cladosporium, Curvularia preferred to grow over leaf litter and log and twig deposits that contain a greater percentage of lignin indicating that these mold species are ligninophilic. In future we

can further study the role of Fungi in degradation of organic matters REFERENCES 1. Whitney, W. D. "Cave, n.1." def. 1. The Century dictionary.

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10. Arunima Karkun and Seema Verma. Study and survey of fungal diversity of Borra caves situated in Andhra Pradesh, India. Int. J. Res. Ayurveda Pharm. Mar - Apr 2016;7(Suppl 2):241-246 http://dx.doi.org/10.7897/2277-4343.07296

Cite this article as: Arunima Karkun, K.L. Tiwari and S.K. Jadhav. Study of diversity of fungi of Mandeepkhol cave during post rainy season situated in Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh, India. Int. J. Res. Ayurveda Pharm. Jul - Aug 2016;7(Suppl 3):155-158 http://dx.doi.org/10.7897/2277-4343.074175

Source of support: Nil, Conflict of interest: None Declared

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