Aboveground fungal endophyte infection in tall fescue alters rhizosphere chemical, biological, and hydraulic properties in texture-dependent ways

Role of fungal endophyte of tall fescue ( Epichloë coenophiala ) on water availability, wilting point and integral energy in texturally-different soils

“…However, the h range of 0-100 hPa corresponds to soil macropores which are mainly formed by the activity of soil fauna, fungal hyphae, plant roots and residues (Ladd et al, 1996). However, the dry mass of roots was not affected by the endophyte infection (Hosseini et al, 2015a). Hence, the effect of endophyte infection on soil macropores through its influence on root growth was not observed in our study.…”

“…Therefore, it might be implied that the effect of endophyte infection on soil pore space is the highest in the pore size range of 30-0.38 m. This pore size range can be considered equal to mesopores and ultra-micropores of pore size classification proposed by Brewer (1964), which is responsible to retain water for the growth of plants (Tisdall and Oades, 1982). These observations might be explained in this way: E+ plants associated soils had greater SOC and HWSC values rather than E− plants (see Hosseini et al, 2015a) and SOM has greater role in formation and stabilization of mesopores and micropores (Golchin et al, 1994;Ladd et al, 1996;Zaffar and Sheng-Gao, 2015). Therefore, the effect of endophyte infection on soil water retention was mostly observed in the h range of 100-8000 hPa corresponding to mesopores and micropores.…”

Growth promotion mediated by endophytic fungi in cloned seedlings of Eucalyptus grandis x Eucalyptus urophylla hybrids

“…This observation may be explained by a reduction in the values of these variables that occurred at the final evaluation times, possibly related to exhaustion of the nutritional content of the available substrate, or even an absence of symbiotic microflora in the autoclaved substrate, specifically in the case of the control plants for the latter scenario. Symbionts mediate the transfer of nutrients from the soil to plants (Barretti et al, 2008;Behie and Bidochka, 2014), and the presence of endophytic fungi has been linked to mechanisms such as the mineralization of available organic matter (Van Hecke et al, 2005), alteration of the chemical and biological properties of the soil and changes in hydraulic characteristics and aggregate stability (Hosseini et al, 2015). Filamentous fungi, such as those used in this work, release enzymes through their hyphae that interact with the organic matter in the substrate (Chigineva et al, 2011) and transform nutrients, such as nitrogen, into forms that are assimilable by plants (Chen et al, 2013).…”

Research Advances on Tall Fescue Salt Tolerance: From Root Signaling to Molecular and Metabolic Adjustment

“…A symbiotic association that is specific to tall fescue is the infection with the Neotyphodium and Epichlo€ e fungal species, which may provide tall fescue with the beneficial metabolites (Christensen and Voisey, 2009;Clay and Schardl, 2002;Leuchtmann et al, 2000). Recently, Hosseini et al (2015) reported that tall fescue-endophyte association profoundly increased crucial plant metabolites in the soil especially carbohydrates. The specific mechanisms of endophyte-enhanced salt-stress avoidance or tolerance in tall fescue are still complex and might involve direct and indirect effects of the fungal metabolites on the host plant.…”