Diversity of tomato phylloplane fungal communities

The phylloplane that is, plant foliage as a microbial habitat is considered a hostile environment for survival and colonization by microorganisms due to the rapid fluctuation in solar radiation, temperature, humidity and heterogeneous availability of nutrients . Nonetheless, the phylloplane is populated by a large and diverse microbiota of bacteria, fungi, yeast, archaea and other microorganisms that have commensal, pathogenic and mutualistic interactions with the plant host.T he total size of the fungal population of the phylloplane has not yet been estimated but is expected to be lower. Like rhizospheric microbial communities, phylloplane microbial communities can also improve plant growth and health status through different microbe host interactions. Hence these beneficial phylloplane microbes can be considered as bioindicators of plant health. hence we analyze the diversity of phylloplane fungi of tomato using metagenomic approach