Effect of climate and phenological stage on fungal endophytes community in Sorghum bicolor leaves

Abstract

Endophytic fungi comprise a group of polyphyletic microorganisms of great diversity, which can be modulated by biotic and abiotic factors. In the present study, we analyzed the diversity and distribution of the endophytic fungal community associated with leaves of Sorghum bicolor crops in two areas of Brazilian forests and inferred the in uence of climate and host phenology on their occurrence. The results obtained in this study showed that S. bicolor has a rich and diverse community of endophytic fungi distributed in Ascomycota, Basidiomycota and Mucoromycota, with members of Dothideomycetes and Sordariomycetes as dominant groups. The community of endophytic fungi was in uenced by two factors: rainfall and plant phenological stage. Filamentous fungi colonization increases as the post-blooming stage, and the fungal response is relative to its growth form. Further researches are needed to better understand the implications of endophytic-host association with sorghum crops.

Are rot-causing Botryosphaeriaceae species surviving in healthy Manihot esculenta propagative material in Brazil?

“…The number of isolates recovered from M. esculenta stems gradually decreased as the collection areas moved away from the ZM, located in the Atlantic Forest ecoregion, towards the SE mesoregion, in the Caatinga ecoregion of the state of Pernambuco. Higher humidity and precipitation may have favoured sporulation and fungal infection in M. esculenta plantations located in ZM mesoregion, while ultraviolet radiation together with lower rainfall and humidity may have negatively in uenced fungi in SE mesoregion, decreasing sporulation and infection of endophytic fungi in plants in this area as observed in previous studies with other hosts in the same Brazilian state(Pádua et al, 2019;Silva et al, 2023). This work is part of a larger study on species of the Botryosphaericeae family in M. esculenta plantations in Brazil, seeking to better understand the ecology of these species and the epidemiology of the diseases they cause and that impact culture in the country and around the world.…”