Diversity and composition of fungal endophytes in semiarid Northwest Venezuela

Loro, Manuel; Valero-Jiménez, Claudio A.; Nozawa, Shingo; Márquez, L. M.

doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2012.04.009

Cited by 59 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The goal of our study was to examine the abundance, diversity, local distributions, and host affiliations of endophytes in leaves and stems of representative woody plants in the Sonoran Desert, North America's hottest and most species-rich desert biome [71]. The resulting data set complements a growing body of work on root- and shoot-associated endophytes of grasses and other common plants in deserts and grasslands [1, 15-18, 31, 34, 47, 48, 50, 52-55, 59, 67-69, 82, 83, 92], providing insights into the factors shaping endophyte ecology and plant-fungal associations in diverse arid- and semi-arid lands.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, root-symbiotic fungi such as mycorrhizae and dark-septate endophytes have received increasing attention from biologists in arid lands [1, 15, 18, 31, 34, 47, 48, 52, 53, 55, 59, 67, 68, 92]. Such work has greatly enhanced our understanding of the geographic-, host-, and tissue-affiliations of fungi that are symbiotic with ecologically important plants in semi-arid grasslands and deserts, especially grasses and sedges [34, 47], gypsophilous plants [69], and selected dicotyledonous plants such as Atriplex spp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fungal Endophytes in Aboveground Tissues of Desert Plants: Infrequent in Culture, but Highly Diverse and Distinctive Symbionts

et al. 2015

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In hot deserts, plants cope with aridity, high temperatures, and nutrient-poor soils with morphological and biochemical adaptations that encompass intimate microbial symbioses. Whereas the root microbiomes of arid-land plants have received increasing attention, factors influencing assemblages of symbionts in above-ground tissues have not been evaluated for many woody plants that flourish in desert environments. We evaluated the diversity, host affiliations, and distributions of endophytic fungi associated with photosynthetic tissues of desert trees and shrubs, focusing on non-succulent woody plants in the species-rich Sonoran Desert. To inform our strength of inference, we evaluated the effects of two different nutrient media, incubation temperatures, and collection seasons on the apparent structure of endophyte assemblages. Analysis of >22,000 tissue segments revealed that endophytes were isolated four times more frequently from photosynthetic stems than leaves. Isolation frequency was lower than expected given the latitude of the study region, and varied among species a function of sampling site and abiotic factors. However, endophytes were very species-rich and phylogenetically diverse, consistent with less-arid sites of a similar latitudinal position. Community composition differed among host species, but not as a function of tissue type, sampling site, sampling month, or exposure. Estimates of abundance, diversity and composition were not influenced by isolation medium or incubation temperature. Phylogenetic analyses of the most commonly isolated genus (Preussia) revealed multiple evolutionary origins of desert-plant endophytism and little phylogenetic structure with regard to seasonality, tissue preference, or optimal temperatures and nutrients for growth in vitro. Together, these results provide insight into endophytic symbioses in desert plant communities, and can be used to optimize strategies for capturing endophyte biodiversity at regional scales.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fungal Endophytes in Aboveground Tissues of Desert Plants: Infrequent in Culture, but Highly Diverse and Distinctive Symbionts

et al. 2015

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“…Thus, fungi are likely to be important players regulating population and community dynamics in the context of the HPDF (Figures 1 and 2). Mycorrhizae and the relatively unknown dark septate endophytes (DSE) colonize most desert plants and may buffer them against abiotic stresses, such as heat, drought, and nutrient stress (Ghimire et al 2011, Loro et al 2012. Indeed, a recent meta-analysis (Kivlin et al 2013) showed that DSEs protect plants, particularly desert grasses, against drought better than other fungal groups (Mandyam & Jumpponen 2005, Sánchez Márquez et al 2012.…”

Section: Fungi-plant Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Multiscale, Hierarchical Model of Pulse Dynamics in Arid-Land Ecosystems

Collins¹,

Belnap

Grimm³

et al. 2014

Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst.

185

166

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Ecological processes in arid lands are often described by the pulse-reserve paradigm, in which rain events drive biological activity until moisture is depleted, leaving a reserve. This paradigm is frequently applied to processes stimulated by one or a few precipitation events within a growing season. Here we expand the original framework in time and space and include other pulses that interact with rainfall. This new hierarchical pulse-dynamics framework integrates space and time through pulse-driven exchanges, interactions, transitions, and transfers that occur across individual to multiple pulses extending from micro to watershed scales. Climate change will likely alter the size, frequency, and intensity of precipitation pulses in the future, and arid-land ecosystems are known to be highly sensitive to climate variability. Thus, a more comprehensive understanding of arid-land pulse dynamics is needed to determine how these ecosystems will respond to, and be shaped by, increased climate variability.

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“…These nonsystemic endophytes are extremely diverse taxonomically, and have been found in all plant taxa analysed, including sedges (Ruotsalainen et al, 2002;Rodriguez et al, 2009;Loro et al, 2012). The ecological functions attributed to non-systemic endophytes are very diverse, and unknown for most species (Saikkonen et al, 1998;Rodriguez & Redman, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-systemic fungal endophytes in Carex brevicollis may influence the toxicity of the sedge to livestock

Canals

Emeterio

Sánchez-Márquez

et al. 2014

Span. j. agric. res.

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The sedge Carex brevicollis is a common component of semi-natural grasslands and forests in temperate mountains of Central and Southern Europe. The consumption of this species causes a severe toxicity to livestock, associated to high plant concentrations of the β-carbolic alkaloid brevicolline. This research was started to ascertain the origin of this toxicity. An exploratory survey of alkaloid content in plants growing in contrasting habitats (grasslands/forests) did not contribute to find a pattern of the variable contents of brevicolline in plants, and led us to address other possibilities, such as a potential role of fungal endophytism. Systemic, vertically-transmitted endophytes producers of herbivore-deterrent alkaloids are known to infect many known forage grasses. We did not detect systemic endophytes in C. brevicollis, but the sedge harboured a rich community of non-systemic fungi. To test experimentally whether non-systemic endophytes influenced the synthesis of the alkaloid, 24 plants were submitted to a fungicide treatment to remove the fungal assemblage, and the offspring ramets were analysed for alkaloid content. Brevicolline was the major β-carbolic alkaloid detected, and the contents were at least five times lower in the new ramets that developed from fungicide-treated plants than in the untreated plants. This result, although not conclusive about the primary source of the alkaloid (a plant or a fungal product) indicates that fungal endophytes may affect the contents of the toxic brevicolline in this sedge.

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Diversity and composition of fungal endophytes in semiarid Northwest Venezuela

Cited by 59 publications

References 41 publications

Fungal Endophytes in Aboveground Tissues of Desert Plants: Infrequent in Culture, but Highly Diverse and Distinctive Symbionts

Fungal Endophytes in Aboveground Tissues of Desert Plants: Infrequent in Culture, but Highly Diverse and Distinctive Symbionts

A Multiscale, Hierarchical Model of Pulse Dynamics in Arid-Land Ecosystems

Non-systemic fungal endophytes in Carex brevicollis may influence the toxicity of the sedge to livestock

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