Foliar endophytic fungi live inside healthy plant leaves, and in some cases they confer herbivore resistance to the host. All previous studies of endophyte–herbivore interactions have occurred in temperate areas, and many use correlations rather than experiments. In Panama, Glomerella cingulata is a common endophyte species found in healthy leaves, and Chelymorpha alternans is a common herbivor...

Complex biotic interactions shape ecological communities of plants, herbivores and their natural enemies. In studies of multi-trophic interactions, the presence of small, invisible micro-organisms associated with plants and those of a fourth above-ground trophic level have often been neglected. Incorporating these neglected factors improves our understanding of the processes within a multi-trop...

All plants studied in natural ecosystems are symbiotic with fungi (1), which obtain nutrients while either positively, negatively, or neutrally affecting host fitness (2). Plant adaptation to selective pressures is considered to be regulated by the plant genome (3). To test whether mutualistic fungi contribute to plant adaptation, we collected 200 Dichanthelium lanuginosum plants from geotherma...

Fungal endophytes inhabit healthy tissues of all terrestrial plant taxa studied to date and are diverse and abundant in leaves of tropical woody angiosperms. Studies have demonstrated that plant location and leaf age influence density of endophyte infection in leaves of tropical forest trees. However, ecological factors underlying these observations have not been explored in detail. Here, we es...

Understanding the effects of root-associated microbes in explaining plant community patterns represents a challenge in community ecology. Although typically overlooked, several lines of evidence point out that nonmycorrhizal, root endophytic fungi in the Ascomycota may have the potential to drive changes in plant community ecology given their ubiquitous presence, wide host ranges, and plant spe...

Wilson, A. D., Clement, S. L., and Kaiser, W. J. 1991. Survey and detection of endophytic fungi in Lolium germ plasm by direct staining and aphid assays. Plant Dis. 75:169-173. Clavicipitaceous anamorphic endophytes were detected in 28 of 85 accessions from five of eight species in a collection of Lolium germ plasm. Comparative descriptions of endophytic mycelium in seeds of L. multiflorum, L. ...

Grasses infected with clavicipitaceous fungi have been associated with a variety of diseases including classical ergotism in humans and animals, fescue foot and summer syndrome in cattle, and rye-grass staggers in sheep. During the last decade it has been recognized that many of these fungal infections are endophytic; a fungal endophyte is a fungus that grows entirely within the host plant. Ins...

A historic profile of endophyte-induced tall fescue toxicosis is presented. A chronology of events is presented, beginning with the importance of finding Balansia-infected grasses in a tall fescue pasture in north central Georgia. This initial finding was followed by the discovery that another related endophyte was present in tall fescue and other major forage grasses. This species of endophyte...

To date, it has been thought that endophytic fungi in forbs infect the leaves of their hosts most commonly by air-borne spores (termed "horizontal transmission"). Here, we show that vertical transmission from mother plant to offspring, via seeds, occurs in six forb species (Centaurea cyanus, C. nigra,Papaver rhoeas,Plantago lanceolata,Rumex acetosa, and Senecio vulgaris), suggesting that this m...

Mutualisms can play important roles in influencing species coexistence and determining community composition. However, few studies have tested whether such interactions can affect species distributions by altering the niches of partner species. In subalpine meadows of the Rocky Mountains, USA, we explored whether the presence of a fungal endophyte (genus Epichloë) may shift the niche of its par...