Muscodor camphora, a new endophytic species from Cinnamomum camphora

The current study describes a new endophytic species Muscodor camphora from internal stem tissue of Cinnamomum camphora. The fungus produces white hairy colonies over potato dextrose agar medium with sterile ropy mycelial filaments and hyphal coils. Scanning electron micrographs exhibited that they form dense hyphal web, which club to form rope-like mycelium and coils. Phylogenetic, genetic distance and haplotype analyses based on internal transcribed spacer confirm its identity as a new species in the genus Muscodor. The fungus also produces a unique mixture of 18 volatile organic compounds predominantly producing tetracontane, 4-octadecylmorpholine, N, Ndimethyl- 1-pentadecanamine and cis-9-hexadecenal. These volatiles exhibited synergistic inhibitory effect over a tested spectrum of pathogenic microorganisms. Out of 15 tested pathogenic microorganisms, the volatile organic compounds inhibit the growth of fungal pathogens by 13-70 %, while considerable inhibition was observed against Candida, Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas species.