Involvement of the fungal endophyte Fusarium solani in the phosphate nutrition of Lotus species

NIEVA S; ROMERO FM; FEHRLE I; ERBAN A; CARRASCO P; RUIZ OA; KOPKA J

Simposio; Young Microbiologists Symposium; 2020

The interactions between plants and fungal endophytes modify the host performance. Some factors, such as environment, plant species and age can alter the development of the interaction and the balance from mutualism to pathogenesis. Several compounds involved in different plant metabolic pathways may be modified as response to plant interaction with endophytes. The fungal endophyte F. solani (strain 142L52B), isolated from roots of Lotus tenuis, infects root but not shoot tissues of L. tenuis as well as L. japonicus. The effect of this interaction on the fitness of both plant species combines several differential response of the two host. Our aim was to evaluate the effect of this interaction on the behaviour of both Lotus species when stressed by the extreme phosphate starvation.ConclusionSevere phosphate starvation stress masks a potentially beneficial effect of F. solani inoculation. Despite the accumulation of phosphoric acid in the mycelia under in vitro conditions, F. solani does not provide plants with phosphate-resources to ameliorate the effect of extreme nutritional stress.We hypothesize that potential benefits of phosphate nutrition provided by the endophyte may occur during mild nutritional stress but not under extreme stress.