Soil microfungi from a banana (Musa paradisiaca) plantation in Teapa, Tabasco, Mexico

Abstract

In this study, we analyzed the soil microfungal community from a banana (Musa paradisiaca L.) plantation in Teapa, a municipality of Tabasco State in Mexico. The objectives were to determine the fungal species present and to analyze the community composition throughout an entire year. We performed 4 samplings during different seasons and the fungal isolates were recovered using the dilution plate technique. We isolated 91 strains from 30 different mitosporic species where only Aspergillus flavus Link, Fusarium nivale (Fr.) Ces and Trichoderma harzianum Rifai were considered as resident species while the remaining species were sporadic. The Sorensen similarity index suggested that species succession had occurred among the sampling seasons. From all the species identified in this survey, 8 had not been found as inhabitants of Mexican soils. The study shows the high microfungal richess of this soil and highlights the importance of Mexican soils as sources of mitosporic fungal species.