Elimination of ergovaline from a grass-Neotyphodium endophyte symbiosis by genetic modification of the endophyte

Grass-endophyte interactions: a note on the role of monosaccharide transport in the Neotyphodium lolii-Lolium perenne symbiosis.

Symbiotic mutualistic associations of plants with ectoand endomycorrhizal and endophytic fungi are very common in natural and agricultural ecosystems; these fungi improve nutrient acquisition and ⁄ or tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses of their hosts (Smith & Gianinazzi-Pearson, 1988; Nehls et al., 2007; Schardl et al., 2007). A major feature of associations between the heterotrophic fung...

Genetic Compatibility Determines Endophyte-Grass Combinations

Even highly mutually beneficial microbial-plant interactions, such as mycorrhizal- and rhizobial-plant exchanges, involve selfishness, cheating and power-struggles between the partners, which depending on prevailing selective pressures, lead to a continuum of interactions from antagonistic to mutualistic. Using manipulated grass-endophyte combinations in a five year common garden experiment, we...

Loline Alkaloid Gene Clusters of the Fungal Endophyte Neotyphodium Uncinatum

Herbivory mediates grass-endophyte relationships.

Endophytic fungi are plant symbionts living asymptomatically within plant tissues. Neotyphodium spp., which are asexual vertically transmitted systemic fungal endophytes of cool-season grasses, are predicted to be plant mutualists. These endophytes increase host plant resistance to environmental stresses and/or increase the production of alkaloid-based herbivore deterrents. The ubiquity of this...

Neotyphodium endophyte infection frequency in annual grass populations: relative importance of mutualism and transmission efficiency.

Persistence and ubiquity of vertically transmitted Neotyphodium endophytes in grass populations is puzzling because infected plants do not consistently exhibit increased fitness. Using an annual grass population model, we show that the problems for matching endophyte infection and mutualism are likely to arise from difficulties in detecting small mutualistic effects, variability in endophyte tr...