Endophytic Xylaria (Xylariaceae) among liverworts and angiosperms: phylogenetics, distribution, and symbiosis

Abstract

Nuclear ribosomal 18S and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence data were used to identify endophytic fungi cultured from six species of liverworts collected in Jamaica and North Carolina. Comparisons with other published fungal sequences and phylogenetic analyses yielded the following conclusions: (1) the endophytes belong to the ascomycete families Xylariaceae, Hypocreaceae, and Ophiostomataceae, and (2) liverwort endophytes in the genus Xylaria are closely related to each other and to endophytes isolated from angiosperms in China, Puerto Rico, and Europe. Liverwort endophytes are expected to be foragers or endophytic specialists, although little is known about the role of these fungi in symbioses. Features that may indicate a mutualistic role for these endophytes are discussed.

Beyond the water column: aquatic hyphomycetes outside their preferred habitat

“…This shift from saprotrophy to biotrophy places aquatic hyphomycetes not only outside their preferred habitat, but also outside their traditional nutritional niche. However, several other taxa also occupy a dual, saprotrophic and endophytic niche (PorrasAlfaro and Bayman, 2011), among them Xylariaceae (Davis et al, 2003), some Sebacinales (Weiss et al, 2015), or even the lichen-forming fungi of the StictiseConotrema complex (Wedin et al, 2004). Most strikingly, Metarhizium, a common plant endophyte, is also a pathogen providing nitrogen recovered from dead insects to plant hosts (Behie et al, 2012).…”

Plant paleopathology and the roles of pathogens and insects

“…Mosses and liverworts apparently lack diseases (Saxena and Harinder, 2004). However, some liverworts host fungal glomeralean endophytes (Chambers et al, 1999;Davis et al, 2003) that probably serve mutualistic rather than parasitic roles. Similarly, some modern lycopods host glomeralean endophytes (Read et al, 2000;Winther and Friedman, 2007) that form associations extending deep into the Paleozoic permineralized record Krings et al, 2005;Krings et al, 2007;Krings et al, 2011).…”

Diversity of fungal endophytes in medicinal plants of Courtallam hills, Western Ghats, India

“…Endophytes have been reported from all major groups of plants including algae (Hawksworth 1988, Zuccaro et al 2008, Suryanarayanan et al 2010, lichens (Petrini et al 1990, Suryanarayanan et al 2005, mosses (Petrini 1986, Schulz et al 1993), other bryophytes (Davis et al 2003), ferns (Petrini 1986, Petrini et al 1992, conifers (Carroll et al 1977, Carroll & Carroll 1978, Petrini & Muller 1979, Petrini & Carroll 1981, Petrini 1986, Giordano et al 2009) and angiosperms (Taylor et al 1999, Arnold et al 2000. Endophytes occur in wide range of habitats, such as coastal mangroves (Kumaresan & Suryanarayanan 2001), temperate evergreen forests (Espinosa-Garcia & Langenheim 1990), xeric regions (Suryanarayanan et al 2003) and tropical forests (Arnold et al 2000).…”