SEED-TRANSMITTED FUNGAL ENDOPHYTES PROTECT ITS HOST AGAINST A STERILITY-CAUSING PATHOGENIC FUNGI

IANNONE, LEOPOLDO JAVIER; VIGNALE, MARÍA VICTORIA; PINGET, A DANIELA; MC CARGO, PATRICIA DÉBORA; RE, ALEJO; DE BATTISTA, JOSÉ P.; NOVAS, MARÍA VICTORIA

Buenos Aires

Simposio; 32nd New Phytologist Symposium: Plant interactions with other organisms: molecules, ecology and evolution.; 2013

New Phytologist Trust

Some grasses are co-infected by Epichloë and smut fungi. Asexual Epichloë species are endophytic symbionts, transmitted asymptomatically via seeds of its host grass. Smut fungi produce sterility of their host plants by replacing the ovary with their spores. Thus, the ovary becomes a resource for which both fungi should compete. We evaluated the role of Epichloë tembladerae, an endophyte of Bromus auleticus, in the interaction Bromus auleticus?Ustilago bullata (smut). In-vitro studies indicated that E. tembladerae inhibits the germination of the spores of U. bullata. In studies performed at the field smut disease incidence was dramatically diminished in endophyte-infected plants. In the presence of the pathogen endophyte-infected plants produced more biomass and seeds than endophyte-free plants. Thus defensive-mutualism against fungal pathogens seems to be an important driving force in the evolution of the mutualistic symbiosis between E. tembladerae and B. auleticus (in which both the plant and the endophyte are benefitted).