Identification of fungal endophytes and mycotoxins from warm-season grasses in Florida pastures

JENNIFER DURINGER; KO-HSUAN CHEN; ANN BLOUNT; FLORENCIA MARCÓN; HUI-LING LIAO

Pacific Grove, California

Congreso; 30th Fungal Genetics Conference; 2019

Genetics Society of America

Warm-season grasses are widely used in Florida as part of livestock feed regimens through all grazing seasons. The community composition of endophytic fungi in these grasses are hyper-diverse, which may lead to variations in the type and amount of mycotoxins produced as herbivore deterrents. While the relationship that some endophyte have with some agronomic grasses have been well studied, characterization at whole community scales and the consequences of geographic and strain variation on mycotoxin production for warm season grasses are poorly understood. Here we investigated the community of fungal endophytes present in agronomically important grass forages across Florida, including Paspalum notatum, Sporobolus indicus, Paspalum nicorae, Andropogon virginicus, and Cynodon dactylon. High throughput amplicon sequencing targeting the Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region of ribosomal RNA was applied to investigate the fungal species present in grass leaves. Our results suggested that fungal communities of warm-season grasses were structured by the plant species. In addition, samples with two fungi (Myriogenospora atramentosa and Balansia epichloe) producing black stromata on the surface of P. notatum and S. indicus but without causing other obvious symptoms were examined. We detected higher Ergine content in pastures with Myriogenospora atramentosa, suggesting a correlation between fungal communities and mycotoxin content in Florida's pastures. Our results will fill the gaps in understanding the specific fungal endophytes related to forage grass species and mycotoxin accumulation.