Culture-based diversity of endophytic fungi of three species of Ferula grown in Iran

A total of 1,348 endophytic fungal strains were isolated from , , and . They included (16 species), (11 species), (1 species), (2 species), (6 species), (31 species), (7 species), (2 species), and (1 species). had the richest species composition of endophytic fungi, and the endophytic fungi were most abundant in their roots compared to shoots. Chao, Margalef, Shannon, Simpson, Berger-Parker, Menhinick, and Camargo indices showed that roots had the most endophytic fungal species. The frequency distribution of fungal species isolated from spp. fell into the log-series model, and roots had the highest Fisher alpha. The dominance indices showed that there are no dominant species in the endophytic fungal community isolated from spp., indicating community stability. Evenness values were 0.69, 0.90, 0.94, and 0.57 for endophytic fungi isolated from roots, shoots, roots, and roots, respectively, indicating a species distribution that tends toward evenness. The fungal species community isolated from each of roots, shoots, roots, and roots was a diverse species group originating from a homogeneous habitat. Their distribution followed a log-normal distribution, suggesting that the interactions of numerous independent environmental factors multiplicatively control species abundances. Principal component analysis showed that the highest species diversity and dominance were observed in the endophytic fungal community isolated from and roots, respectively.