TITLE:
Mutualistic Interaction of Piriformospora indica (Serendipita indica) with Aloe vera, the Wonder Plant for Modern Living
AUTHORS:
Neeraj Shrivastava, Shubhangi Mahajan, Aditi Jain, Priyanka Sharma, Amit C. Kharakwal, Ajit Varma
KEYWORDS:
Aloe vera, Piriformospora indica, Aloe Gel, Secondary Metabolites
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.10 No.11,
November
20,
2019
ABSTRACT: Aloe vera, a short-stemmed shrub is described as a “wonder plant”, due to its vast
uses in various medical products. Since many decades, extensive research has revealed
that the pharmacological active ingredients are distributed in both the gel and
rind of the Aloe vera leaves. A. vera is very popular in cosmetic
and pharmaceutical industries and it is needed in large quantities with higher fractions
of important constituents. To satisfy the market demand, intervention of microbial
community seems to be a promising approach, which helps to increase the growth and
metabolites along with plant fitness. Piriformospora
indica is a root colonizing endophytic
fungus, having unique plant growth-promoting properties. It helps the plant to acquire
more nutrients from soil even under extreme physical and nutrient stress conditions.
It interacts with a wide range of hosts. Interaction of P. indica with A.
vera resulted in overall increase in plant biomass and greater
shoot and root length, as well as number of shoots and roots as compared to control
under both in vitro and in vivo environment conditions. Apart from
that, the photosynthetic pigments (Chl a, Chl b and total Chl)
and aloin content were observed significantly higher in A. vera plantlets
colonized with symbiotic endophyte. The antioxidant activities were also tested
and found significantly higher as compared to control plants. This imparts the potential
of P. indica, to resist the plants against phyto-pathogenic microbes. P. indica has been proved as a potential candidate to enhance the biomass production
along with various value additions in the form of active ingredients in A. vera.