Distribution and diversity of Polyporaceae in Western India: An overview and addition to mycoflora of the Gujarat state

ks.rajpu15@yahoo.com Abstract Extensive fieldwork in different climatic regimes of Gujarat state during last four years resulted in the collection of more than 349 fungal species. Out of these, 37 species from 20 genera were found to be from the family Polyporaceae. Among these, five species are being reported for the first time here as new distribution records. The highest number of species is represented by the genus Trametes while, Cerrena unicolo, Neolentinus kauffmanii, Dichomitus squalens, Panus conchatus and Laetiporus sulphureus possessed single species each.


Introduction
Fungi are an ancient group of organisms which separated from animals about 900 million years ago (5) that adapted to variety of habitats by altering the hyphal structure, mode of nutrition, including substrates, reproductive structure and growth forms. They are indispensable mediators in recycling the carbon stored in plant material and other organic compounds and are thus an important component of the ecosystem (10). On the flip side, they also cause economic losses in the form of decay and deterioration of forest products and diseases to flora and fauna (7). Lately fungal strains have been used in the productions of enzymes on a commercial scale. White rot Basidiomycetes produce different types of peroxidases and laccases that have potential application in degradation of xenobiotic compounds. Most of the antibiotics available in the market are also obtained from fungi. Intensive research work has been initiated worldwide in search of new and novel biomolecules to combat diseases that plague mankind. Edible fungi are a rich source of nutrition. Many fungi are sources of edible as well as nonedible dyes. In spite of its various applications and importance, studies on fungal diversity of Gujarat state has not received much attention from the scientific community and there is very little published information on the subject (20).
In recent years, a few efforts have been made to document the same from the Gujarat state, but most of the reports are on human pathogen (3,6,8,9,18) and agricultural pathogen (17,24,29) but but very few on saprophytic fungi occurring in the state (1,2,14,16). Rajput et al. (20) compiled the first checklist for the state and reported 334 species. Therefore, it is essential to explore the diversity of such important group of organisms. In continuation of previous work, the present study is therefore, aimed to report the status and diversity of Polyporaceae from the Gujarat state.    were processed for molecular identification.
Molecular identification: Genomic DNA was extracted by conventional method (19) as well as using Plant/Fungi DNA isolation kit (Sigma Cat# E5038) from the fresh fruiting bodies or fresh mycelia from one week old fungal cultures. PCR was carried out using 1X final concentration of Ready Mix™ Taq PCR Reaction Mix (Sigma) and template DNA (50 ng/μl). Amplification of the DNA was performed by using Thermal cycler (Applied Biosystems Veriti®) and the ITS region was amplified by PCR machine using the primers ITS 1 and ITS 4 as described by White et al. (28). The amplified products were purified using Purelink TM Quick PCR Purification kit (Cat# K310001) and purified products were sent for sequencing to Eurrofins Genomics India Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore.
Sequence data obtained after sequencing was subjected to sequence match analysis using Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) on NCBI for identification of fungal species. Identification was done by 99% base-pair match of the sequence obtained to the closest available reference sequences. After the preliminary analysis, the sequence was submitted to NCBI by using BankIt tool and also submitted to BOLD SYSTEMS according to the guidelines provided on the BOLD website (http://www.boldsystems.org/). After molecular identification, characteristic features of identified species were also compared with the available literature.

Result and Discussion
Fungal diversity of the western part of India with special reference to the Gujarat state is poorly investigated (20). There are a few sporadic reports on the fungal diversity of the state, but these are either reports from medical colleges on human pathogens or from agricultural universities on plant pathogens. Saprophytic fungi, an important component of forest ecosystems have largely been ignored by researchers. Fungi play an important role in mineralization processes and carbon recycling of various carbohydrates and polysaccharides stored in plant cell walls (10,21). Sporadic reports on wood rot fungi for the state are available (1,2,14,16) but extensive studies on this group is lacking. Rajput et al. (20) compiled the first checklist on the basis of their own field survey and available literature on the fungal diversity of the state and reported 334 species. Koyani et al. (15) and  documented the distribution and diversity of the Family Xylariaceae, Myxomycetes and Agaricaceae. Present study is therefore aimed to report the status and diversity of Polyporaceae from Gujarat state on the basis of our own fieldwork and available literature. The current study though preliminary makes an essential contribution to the fungal diversity of the Gujarat State. Still further studies along similar line to document the fungal diversity of the state are essential.
Supplementary Table 1 enlists 37 species belonging 20 genera of the family Polyporaceae on the basis of available literature and our own collections (Fig 1-4)

Competing interests
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Authors contributions KSR conceived the idea; KSR & AMV prepared the manuscript.
Field visit, collection and identification of specimen was done by AMV, RDK and RSP.