Aspergillus insuetus: A New Addition to Indian Funga

Extreme habitats provide unique conditions that foster the evolution of novel and specialized microbes including fungi.These microbes either in association or free-living exhibit a wide range of adaptations enabling them to survive in such challenging and harsh conditions.A study was conducted to explore the fungal diversity in the rhizospheric soil of Elaeagnus angustifolia L. growing wild in Kargil (Ladakh), India.Of the recovered fungal species, we hereby report a microfungi (Aspergillus insuetus) of rare distribution which was identified based on the cultural, micro-morphological and molecular characterization (nrITS).The current investigation represents the first attempt to isolate fungal species from the rhizospheric soil of E. angustifolia L. To the best of our knowledge, A. insuetus constitutes the first report to the Indian mycoflora showing a colonization frequency 6.6%..