Pathogenicity of seed‐associated fungi to Podocarpus falcatus in vitro

Abstract

Twenty-nine fungi that were isolated from seeds and female cones of Podocarpus falcatus from natural forests in Ethiopia, were assessed for their impact on seeds and seedlings of the same host. Based on the results from in vitro seed inoculation tests, we could group the fungi into five categories as: (i) isolates that were pathogenic only to seeds and had no obvious impacts on the germlings; (ii) isolates that were pathogenic only to the germlings; (iii) isolates that were pathogenic both to seeds and the emerging germlings; (iv) isolates that were more or less harmless; and (v) isolates that were germination promoters. Inoculation tests were also performed on 4-7-day-old aseptically grown seedlings. Fusarium oxysporum and Polyporus sp., were strongly pathogenic to both seeds and seedlings, while Nectria gliocladioides, Peniophora cinerea and Pestalotiopsis neglecta also demonstrated pathogenicity but to a lesser extent. Other isolates, e.g. Diaporthe spp. resulted in increased germination of P. falcatus seeds and no pathogenicity to seedlings. However, further investigations are required in order to find out how these fungi behave under nursery or field conditions.

Long-term orchard groundcover management systems affect soil microbial communities and apple replant disease severity

“…Alternaria sp., Sporidiobolus pararoseus, and Venturia inaequalis are known apple pathogens of leaves and fruit. Nectria gliocladioides and Olpidium brassicae have been reported as root pathogens on other trees (Mali and Bojnansky 1979;Gure et al 2005), but it is unknown whether these two species are harmful to apple seedlings.…”

Exploiting the Biosynthetic Potency of Taxol from Fungal Endophytes of Conifers Plants; Genome Mining and Metabolic Manipulation

“…Endophytic fungi of P. falcatus displaying a remarkable activity against various phytopathogens [ 106 ]. Taxol has been identified from P. gracilior (African Fern Pine) [ 81 ] and this was the first report to identify Taxol from plants outside the family Taxaceae , revealing the closely taxonomic relations of Podocarpaceae and Taxaceae (Chaw et al 1993b).…”

Seed and Root Endophytic Fungi in a Range Expanding and a Related Plant Species

“…For instance, roots host communities of endophytes that largely differ from those in stems, leafs and shoots ( Fisher and Petrini, 1992 ; Rodriguez et al, 2009 ), with only few endophytes being capable of systematically infecting the host plant ( Johnston-Monje and Raizada, 2011 ). Further, plants interact with different communities of fungi during their life time and are most strongly affected in early (seed and seedling) growth stages ( Gure et al, 2005 ; Müller et al, 2016 ). Fungi reduce survival of competing plants at early plant stages, while promoting adult plants resulting in higher plant diversity ( Bennett and Cahill, 2016 ).…”