Endophytic mycobiota of leaves and roots of the grass Holcus lanatus

Abstract

Holcus lanatus is a grass that grows in humid, often waterlogged soils in temperate zones around the world. The purpose of this work was to identify fungal endophytes associated with its roots and leaves, and to describe the diversity and spatial distribution patterns found in its mycobiota. Holcus plants were sampled at 11 locations in western and northern Spain, and endophytes were isolated from leaves and roots of each plant. Morphological and molecular methods based on the ITS1-5.8SrRNA-ITS2 sequence were used for isolate identification. In total, 134 different species were identified, 77 occurred in leaves, 79 in roots, and 22 were common to both organs. The dominant species of the mycobiota were isolated from roots and leaves, and were species generally considered as multi-host endophytes. The species richness was similar in leaves and roots, but the composition of isolates from roots varied more among locations than in leaf mycobiotas, suggesting that soil characteristics may have strongly influenced the root mycobiota. Significant variations with respect to the composition of their mycobiota among different locations indicate that beta diversity is a first order factor governing the richness and distribution of the endophytic mycobiota in grasses.

Endophytic fungi harbored in Panax notoginseng : diversity and potential as biological control agents against host plant pathogens of root-rot disease

“…Previous studies in other plants have also indicated that endophytes exhibit tissues specificity [58], [59], [60]. As expected, tissue specificity of fungal endophytes was demonstrated in our study.…”

Phylogenic diversity of fungal endophytes in Spanish stands of Pinus halepensis

“…However, since "morphotype" concept was defined (Hawksworth et al 1995), cultural characteristics of fungi are helpful as complementary data for the molecular identification (Guo et al 2003;Lacap et al 2003). Phylogenetic analysis of morphospecies has been increasingly used in the identification for endophytic fungi (Huang et al 2006;Albrectsen et al 2010;Pinruan et al 2010;Sánchez Márquez et al 2010), however there are also problems with this methodology. Many taxa can only be identified to family level as no similar sequences can be blasted in GenBank (Cai et al 2009;Pinruan et al 2010), while identification is based on blasting with a similar sequence.…”

Differences in fungal communities associated to Festuca paniculata roots in subalpine grasslands

“…Beside mycorrhizal fungi, a growing number of published studies of fungal communities associated with plant roots indicate a significant presence of endophytes (Porras-Alfaro et al 2008;Hyde and Soytong 2008;Sánchez Márquez et al 2010). These fungi inhabit the apoplastic spaces of their plant hosts and can colonize the roots of all plant species (Arnold 2007;Rodriguez et al 2009).…”