Endophytic Fungi and Coastal Dune Vegetation: Gibberellins Producing Endophytic Fungi Isolated from Plants Inhabiting Coastal Sand Dunes of Korean Peninsula and Their Role in Dune Conservation

Endophytic fungi play a vital role in the growth and development of their host plants. The role of endophytic fungi in survival of their hosts under extreme sand dune environment prevalent in the coastal regions was investigated. Current study showed that 80.7% of isolated fungal endophytes promoted plant growth, while 17.5% of fungal isolates inhibited it. Fragments of 6 gibberellins encoding genes of P.citrinum KACC43900, A. phaeospermum KACC43901 and G.murorum KACC43902 have been detected by repeated PCR, cloning, sequencing and alignment construction. Proteomic approach has been employed to observe changes in the proteins of Glehnia littoralis. Plant growth promoting proteins i.e. beta-expansin EXPB4, ent-kaur 16-ene synthase, gibberellin 3-oxidase and cytochrome P450 family protein, proteins that regulate energetic metabolism and intracellular redox conditions including glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase and ribulose 1,5-bisphospahate carboxylase/oxygenase and ubiquitin proteasome system comprising heat shock protein binding protein and CLPC heat shock protein, included some of the most important proteins identified.