Mangrove fungal endophytes is one of the understudied types of fungi in the Philippines, despite its diversity and importance in the country. To fill in the gap, this study aimed to assess the diversity and determine host specificity of fungal endophytes among mangrove species in Bicol region, based on ITS1 and ITS4 sequence analysis. A total of 40 fungal species were identified from the leaves of 20 mangrove species and were further classified into 11 taxonomic orders—Xylariales, Trichosphariales, Diaporthales, Glomerellales, Hypocrales, Pleosporales, Mucorales, Agaricales, Polyporales, Botryosphaeriales, and Eurotiales, based on the generated phylogenetic tree. It was noted that closely related fungal species clustered regardless of their mangrove hosts and collection sites. As to host specificity, similar mangrove species hosted different fungal endophytes, suggesting that host specificity can be observed at higher levels of the host taxon than at the species level. Several factors may account for such diversity and differences in species composition, such as climatic changes, host age, and collection site.
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