Main conclusionAccording to the results presented in this paper the fungal endophyteEpichloë typhinasignificantly improves the growth, PSII photochemistry and C assimilation efficiency of its hostDactylis glomerata.In this paper, we present a comprehensive study of the impact of the endophytic fungi Epichloë typhina on its plant hosts’ photosynthesis apparatus. Chlorophyll a fluorescence, gas exchange, immuno-blotting and spectrophotometric measurements were employed to assess photosynthetic performance, changes in pigment content and mechanisms associated with light harvesting, carbon assimilation and energy distribution in Dactylis glomerata colonized with Epichloë typhina. According to the results presented in this study, colonization of D. glomerata results in improved photosynthesis efficiency. Additionally, we propose a new mechanism allowing plants to cope with the withdrawal of a significant fraction of its energy resources by the endophytic fungi. The abundance of LHCI, LHCII proteins as well as chlorophyll b was significantly higher in E+ plants. Malate export out of the chloroplast was shown to be increased in colonized plants. To our knowledge, we are the first to report this phenomenon. Epichloë colonization improved PSII photochemistry and C assimilation efficiency. Elevated energy demands of E+ D. glomerata plants are met by increasing the rate of carbon assimilation and PSII photochemistry.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00425-015-2337-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

No abstract

The impact of fungal endophytes and the modulating role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on the vitality of Verbascum lychnitis, grown in the laboratory in a substratum from a post-mining waste dump was investigated. We report that inoculation with a single endophyte negatively affected the survival rate and biomass production of most of the plant-endophyte consortia examined. The introduction of arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi into this setup (dual inoculation) had a beneficial effect on both biomass yield and survivability. V. lychnitis co-inoculated with AMF and Cochliobolus sativus, Diaporthe sp., and Phoma exigua var. exigua yielded the highest biomass, exceeding the growth rate of both non-inoculated and AMF plants. AMF significantly improved the photosynthesis rates of the plant-endophyte consortia, which were negatively affected by inoculation with single endophytes. The abundance of PsbC, a photosystem II core protein previously shown to be upregulated in plants colonized by Epichloe typhina, exhibited a significant increase when the negative effect of the fungal endophyte was attenuated by AMF.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00572-017-0768-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

No abstract

The microbial diversity of Verbascum lychnitis community from industrial areas was investigated. The plants harbor a variety of endophytic fungi most of which belong to the Ascomycetes. The isolated fungal endophytes were identified according to ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 rDNA sequence similarity and were found to belong to 22 genera and 12 orders. The most frequently isolated genera were Diaporthe spp., Alternaria spp. and Pichia spp. An unidentified species from the Xylaria genus was isolated from V. lychnitis, which is a novel finding since most Xylaria species were reported to be solely wood-inhabiting fungi. The composition of fungal endophytes from the tailings site showed higher diversity, particularly in leaf tissues, than in non-tailings sites.