Agilawood is a costly heartwood medicine obtained from Aquilaria sinensis with active ingredients mainly composed of volatile and semi-volatile substances. However, the formation time of agilawood is quite long and little is known about its formation mechanism. Two highly active fungi obtained from natural agilawood were inoculated on A. sinensis trees to understand their interaction processes and elucidate the transformation rules of induced chemical compositions within different test periods. The results demonstrated that the fungi could successfully colonize living tissues and cells and activate the host defense system, resulting in agilawood accumulation. With increasing time, the main components of A. sinensis converted into constituents or analogs of agilawood and the host exhibited "self-injury" to prevent fungal intrusion and protect other tissues. The data presented here could provide scientific basis for producing agilawood with the two new fungi in a safe, feasible, and sustainable manner without destroying rare Aquilaria plants.
CUI JinLongGUO ShunXingFU ShaoBinXIAO PeiGenWANG MengLiang
Santalum album Linn. is an evergreen and hemi-parasitic tree, the heartwood-sandalwood of which was used during a long history in traditional Chinese medicine. Kuhnia rosmarinifolia Vent. is a good host for 1- or 2-year-old growing S. album. The interaction between S. album and K. rosmarinifolia is still little known. Many studies have been carried out on a number of plants for identification and diversity of endophytes. In this study, in total 25 taxa of endophytic fungi were isolated from the roots of S. album and the roots of K. rosmarinifolia. The most frequently isolated genera were Penicillium sp. 1 and Fusarium sp. 1 in the roots of S. album and K. rosmadnifolia, respectively. S. album is a root parasite of K. rosmarinifolia. The interesting result is that they apparently do not share the same endophytic fungi isolates. This study for the first time explored the content of endophytic fungi from S. album and K. rosmarinifolia, which provides important information for further studies.
