Root fungal endophytes: identity, phylogeny and roles in plant tolerance to metal stress

Metal trace elements accumulate in soils mainly because of anthropic activities, leading living organisms to develop strategies handle metal toxicity. Plants often associate with root endophytic fungi, including nonmycorrhizal and some these are associated tolerance. The lack synthetic analyses plant-endophyte-metal tripartite systems the scant consideration for taxonomy led this review aiming (1) inventory non-mycorrhizal fungal endophytes described respect their taxonomic diversity (2) determine mutualistic roles plant-fungus associations under stress. More than 1500 species 100 orders (mainly Hypocreales Pleosporales) were reported from a wide variety environments hosts. Most had positive effect on host stress, but various effects uptake or translocation no clear consistency. Future research considering functional patterns dynamics is thus encouraged.