International Journal of Agriculture, Environment and Biotechnology

Endophytic microorganisms which remain asymptomatically inside plants have the potential to be used widely in agricultural field and valuable for agriculture as a tool to improve crop performance. Tuber crops are the second most important group of crop plants and among them tropical root and tuber crops which include cassava, sweet potato, yams and aroids, are essential as staple food and are utmost important for world food security. Research on these crops has been neglected and regarding endophytic colonisation, some of these tuber crops have been examined. Healthy asymptomatic leaves of three tropical tuber crops viz. taro (Colocasia esculenta), greater yam (Dioscorea alata) and elephant foot yam (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius) were inoculated on potato dextrose agar media to detect endophytic colonisation. Total six different putative endophytic fungi were isolated from these crops which were found to be non-sporulating when observed under microscope. Further works are being carried out for the identification and utilisation of these organisms in tuber crops improvement. This communication is to report the presence of putative endophytic fungi in taro, yam and elephant foot yam for the first time.

Highlights

• Tropical root and tuber crops are most important for world food security

• Endophytic microorganisms have the potential to boost agriculture

• Incidence of endophytic colonisation was observed first time in taro (Colocasia esculenta), greater yam (Dioscorea alata) and elephant foot yam (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius)