Diversity of Endophytic Fungi in the Rhizome of Wild Ginger Endemic to Sumatra using Next Gereration Sequencing

Abstract

The endemic Sumatran wild ginger plant Zingiber macradenium has a useful value for the surrounding community, namely as medicine. The rhizome organ Z.marcadenium is a part that is widely used by the local community, including as a mouthwash, low back pain medicine, and hives medicine. The presence of bioactive compounds in plants is the cause of a plant producing various beneficial secondary metabolites. In plant tissues there are endophytic fungi that live without disturbing their hosts. The secondary metabolites produced by endophytic fungi will be the same as the host and can even be larger. Endophytic fungi can be obtained through media cultures, but not all fungi can grow in media. The presence of endophytic fungi can be identified through metagenomics, with the Next Generation Sequencing method, the diversity of  endophytic fungi can be known from the sample without using culture techniques. Based on the results of the identification of endophytic fungi in the rhizome of Zingiber macradenium, 1,390 fungi were detected. The dominant endophytic fungal genus diversity in Zingiber macradenium is Cladosporium, Cyphellophora, Fusarium, Irpex, Metschnikowia, Penicillium, Phallus, and Programme. The results of the identification of endophytic fungi showed the presence of endophytic fungi in Zingiber macradenium which could potentially be a source of medicines with conservation efforts to maintain the existence of wild ginger plants endemic to Sumatra.