Effects of endophytic fungi on parasitic process of Taxillus chinensis

Taxillus chinensis (DC.) Danser is an extensively used medicinal shrub in the traditional as well as modern systems of medicines. It is a perennial hemiparasitic plant, which is difficult to propagate artificially because of its low parasitic rate. Successful parasitism of parasitic plants is to fuse their tissues and connect their vasculature to the host vasculature building a physiological bridge, which can efficiently withdraw water, sugars and nutrients from their host plants. It is reported that endophytic fungi play an important role in cell wall degradation and fusion, which is the key forming process of the physiological bridge. Therefore, in this study, the endophytic fungi from T. chinensis of different hosts were isolated, and then the organisms that could degrade the main components of the cell walls were screened out using a medium consisting of guaihuol and cellulose degradation capacity. The results showed that five strains were screened out from 72 endophytic fungi of T. chinensis which with high enzyme activities for lignocellulosic degradation. The laccase and cellulase activities of five strains reached their peaks at day 7, and the highest enzyme activities of these two enzymes were found in strain P6, which was 117.66 and 1.66 U/mL, respectively. Manganese peroxidase of strain 4 and lignin peroxidase of strain N6 also reached their peaks at day 7 and were the highest among the 5 strains, with enzyme activities of 11.61 and 6.64 U/mL, respectively. Strains 4, 15, 31, N6 and P6 were identified as Colletotrichum sp., Nigerrospora sphaerica, Exserohilum sp., Diaporthe phaseolorum and Pestalotiopsis sp., respectively, according to their morphological and molecular biology properties. The endophytic fungi may secrete efficient cell wall degradation enzymes, which promote the dissolution and relaxation of the cell wall between T. chinensis and host, thus contributing to the parasitism of T. chinensis.