Effects of Fungal Endophytes on Interspecific and Intraspecific Competition in the Grasses Festuca arundinacea and Lolium perenne

Marks, Susan; Clay, Keith; Cheplick, Gregory P.

doi:10.2307/2404125

Cited by 132 publications

(124 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…There have been several studies investigating both intraspecific and interspecific competition in F. arundinacea under controlled environmental conditions that have shown that infected plants are better competitors both with and without herbivory (Clay 1990a(Clay , 1997aHill et al 1991;Marks et al 1991;Clay et al 1993;Clay and Holah 1999). This may explain why attempts to establish endophyte-free pastures from highly uninfected seed have at times been unsuccessful as a few seeds in the mix will contain live endophytes.…”

Section: Previous Population and Community-scale Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Endophyte Infection in Tall Fescue (Festuca arundinacea: Poaceae) on Community Diversity

Spyreas¹,

Gibson

Middleton

2001

International Journal of Plant Sciences

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Recent studies have suggested that the presence of endophytes in tall fescue can lead to decreased species richness in the associated plant community. To assess the generality of this hypothesis, a field study tested the effects of endophyte infection on a 3-yr-old successional field dominated by Festuca arundinacea. The potential importance of endophyte infection relative to other environmental factors was tested by including two additional treatments: the effects of soil fertility and mowing. Contrary to previous studies, a positive relationship was found between endophyte infection frequency and diversity ( ,2 N p 23 F p 5.23 R p 0.19 P ! 0.03 strong interaction was found between the mowing treatment and endophyte infection frequency in predicting diversity ( , , , ), where the maximum species richness was present in 2 N p 22 F p 36.1 R p 0.84 P ! 0.0001 plots that were both mowed and highly endophyte infected. The relationship between endophytes and diversity varied through the successional continuum (the mowing treatments) but was generally positive. The soil in mowed plots was drier than in unmowed plots ( , , ). We suggest that heavy mowing t p 2.1 df p 28 P ! 0.05 decreases soil moisture levels enough to reduce the interspecific competitive ability of infected F. arundinacea, thereby promoting local diversity. Endophyte presence is important, but the previously reported negative relationship between endophyte infection and community diversity is probably overly simplistic in complex ecological settings.

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Section: Previous Population and Community-scale Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Endophyte Infection in Tall Fescue (Festuca arundinacea: Poaceae) on Community Diversity

Spyreas¹,

Gibson

Middleton

2001

International Journal of Plant Sciences

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“…Plant/microbe symbioses can influence a variety of processes ranging from resource uptake and photosynthetic rates (Allen et al, 1981 ;Bajwa & Read, 1986;Belesky et al, 1987) to ecological interactions with pests, pathogens and plant competitors (Rabin & Pacovsky, 1985;Grime etal., 1987;Clay, 1988;Allen & Allen, 1990;Marks, Clay & Cheplick, 1991).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These alkaloids also reduce insect herbivory on infected plants (Clay, 1988;Funk, White & Breen, 1993). Infected tall fescue plants exhibit enhanced growth, even in the absence of herbivory (Latch, Hunt & Musgrave, 1985;Clay, 1987;Cheplick, Clay & Marks, 1989;De Battista et al, 1990a;Marks & Clay, 1990) and are better competitors (Marks et al, 1991). Whilst these and many other studies have examined the effects of fungal-endophyte infection on whole plant responses, herbivory, and competition (Clay, 1988(Clay, , 1990, only two studies have examined the photosynthetic response (measured as carbon exchange rate) of grasses to endophyteinfection (Belesky et al, 1987;Richardson, Bacon & Hoveland, 1990).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physiological responses of Festuca arundinacea to fungal endophyte infection

1996

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SUMMARYEnhanced growth rates of several grass species infected by fungal endophytes are known, hut the underlying changes in plant physiology are not. Carbon exchange rates (CER) and leaf conductances {g) of 13 genotypes of tall fescue {Festuca arundinacea Schreb. var. KY 31) infected by the fungal endophyte Acremonimn coenophialum Morgan-Jones and Gams were measured at ambient conditions. Endophyte-free ramets of the same genotypes were also measured. Correlations were calculated hetween environmental conditions at the time of measurement, and physiological responses. The only differential response of infected and uninfected ramets was to temperature. At low leaf temperatures no difference was seen between infected and uninfected plants. However, at leaf temperatures above 35 °C infected tall fescue plants photosynthesized at a significantly greater rate (20-25 %) than uninfected plants. This resulted from a decrease in the CER of uninfected plants, not an increase in the rate of infected plants, at high temperature. There were also significant infection x genotype interactions, indicating that the response to infection was specific to a given genotype. These results indicate that physiological responses of host plants to fungal endophyte infection depend both on the physical environment and the genotype of the plants.

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“…Results a previous study [8] indicated that endophyte infection decreased the performance of perennial ryegrass in both intra-and interspecific competition. In other recent studies, [9] found that endophyte infection had a significant positive effect on ryegrass shoot and root growth, because the plants tended to accumulate more biomass and soluble sugar in the sheath and root than plants that were endophyte free.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…The methods used to study plant competition must consider density, spatial arrangement as well as proportion, and can be used to answer questions about interspecific and intraspecific competition [7]. Results of one study [8] indicated that endophyte infection decreased the performance of perennial ryegrass in both intra-and interspecific competition. In other studies, [9] found that endophyte infection had a significant positive effect on ryegrass shoot and root growth, because the plants tended to accumulate more biomass and soluble sugar in the sheath and root than plants that were endophyte free.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relative Competitiveness of Nimblewill (Muhlenbergia schreberi) with Tall Fescues and Kentucky Bluegrass

Moraes¹,

Witt²,

Phillips³

et al. 2014

AJPS

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Nimblewill (Muhlenbergia schreberi) is a warm-season perennial grass (weed) native to the United States and Canada with low palatability. This species is dominant in many horse pastures in which bluegrass (Poa pratensis) is the primary forage. Tall fescues infected with endophyte fungae gives tall fescue plants greater competitividade ability and enviromental stress tolerance than their noninfected counterparts. The purpose of this study was to compare the relative competitiveness of nimblewill with bluegrass and tall fescues (Lolium arundinaceum) with or without endophytic fungi (strain AR584) through experiments using a replacement series design. Replacement series experiments were conducted in pots to evaluate the growth of species in a pure stand and in a mix stand with variables rates. Species competitiveness was evaluated based on the relative yield and relative yield total (and competitiveness index) of the dry weight of shoots from species grown together. Nimblewill was found to be more competitive than bluegrass, and all tall fescues were more competitive than nimblewill. Our results demonstrated that the presence of endophytes in three different tall fescues did not alter the competitiveness of these fescues with nimblewill, but the tall fescue Kentucky 31 was more competitive between tall fescues. Based on our finding, we concluded that fescues are recommended, especially without the endophytic fungi to suppress nimblewill in implantation of pastures to horses.

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Effects of Fungal Endophytes on Interspecific and Intraspecific Competition in the Grasses Festuca arundinacea and Lolium perenne

Cited by 132 publications

References 40 publications

Effects of Endophyte Infection in Tall Fescue (Festuca arundinacea: Poaceae) on Community Diversity

Effects of Endophyte Infection in Tall Fescue (Festuca arundinacea: Poaceae) on Community Diversity

Physiological responses of Festuca arundinacea to fungal endophyte infection

Relative Competitiveness of Nimblewill (Muhlenbergia schreberi) with Tall Fescues and Kentucky Bluegrass

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