Endophytic fungal diversity: review of traditional and molecular techniques

Endophytic fungi are an important component, are ubiquitous and occur within all know plants, including a broad range of hosts in various ecosystems, and therefore play an important role in the natural environment. More than 1 million species of endophytic fungi are estimated to exist based on a ratio of vascular plants to fungal species of 1:4 or 1:5. Nevertheless, our recognition of endophyte diversity is limited at present. In surveys of endophyte diversity, traditional techniques, such as cultivation-dependent methods, have been routinely used in previous studies. The discovery of endophytic fungi in natural environments, however, has been limited by traditional methodology due to some non-sporulating and non-culturable fungi. Molecular techniques, such as DNA fingerprinting and sequencing methods, have been successfully employed in the detection and identification of endophytic fungi, and different endophyte diversity and community composition have been documented by cultivation-dependent and molecular techniques. This review paper summarises recent progress in the study of endophytic fungal diversity and some key questions are highlighted for future research in endophyte biology.