Effects of the Fungal Endophyte Epichloë festucae var. lolii on Growth and Physiological Responses of Perennial Ryegrass cv. Fairway to Combined Drought and Pathogen Stresses

Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) is widely cultivated around the world for turf and forage. However, the plant is highly susceptible to disease and is sensitive to drought. The present study aims to determine the effect of the fungal endophyte Epichloë festucae var. lolii of perennial ryegrass on the combined stresses of drought and disease caused by Bipolaris sorokiniana in the greenhouse. In the experiment, plants infected (E+) or not infected (E−) with the fungal endophyte were inoculated with Bipolaris sorokiniana and put under different soil water regimes (30%, 50%, and 70%). The control treatment consisted of E+ and E− plants not inoculated with B. sorokiniana. Plant growth, phosphorus (P) uptake, photosynthetic parameters, and other physiological indices were evaluated two weeks after pathogen infection. The fungal endophyte in E+ plants increased P uptake, plant growth, and photosynthetic parameters but decreased the malondialdehyde concentration, proline content, and disease incidence of perennial ryegrass (p < 0.05). E+ plants had the lowest disease incidence at 70% soil water (p < 0.05). The study demonstrates that the fungal endophyte E. festucae var. lolii is beneficial for plant growth and stress tolerance in perennial ryegrass exposed to the combined stresses of drought and B. sorokiniana.

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An arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus and Epichloë festucae var. lolii reduce Bipolaris sorokiniana disease incidence and improve perennial ryegrass growth

Mycorrhiza ◽

10.1007/s00572-017-0813-9 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 28 (2) ◽

pp. 159-169 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Fang Li ◽

Yan’e Guo ◽

Michael J. Christensen ◽

Ping Gao ◽

Yanzhong Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Perennial Ryegrass ◽

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungus ◽

Disease Incidence ◽

Mycorrhizal Fungus ◽

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal ◽

Bipolaris Sorokiniana ◽

Epichloë Festucae ◽

Ryegrass Growth

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The fungal endophyte Epichloë festucae var. lolii plays a limited role in mediating crown rust severity in perennial ryegrass

Crop Science ◽

10.1002/csc2.20095 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 60 (2) ◽

pp. 1090-1104

Author(s):

Garett C. Heineck ◽

Yinjie Qiu ◽

Nancy J. Ehlke ◽

Eric Watkins

Keyword(s):

Perennial Ryegrass ◽

Fungal Endophyte ◽

Crown Rust ◽

Epichloë Festucae ◽

Limited Role ◽

Rust Severity

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An Assessment of the Lolium perenne (Perennial Ryegrass) Seedborne Microbiome across Cultivars, Time, and Biogeography: Implications for Microbiome Breeding

Microorganisms ◽

10.3390/microorganisms9061205 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (6) ◽

pp. 1205

Author(s):

Ian Tannenbaum ◽

Brendan Rodoni ◽

German Spangenberg ◽

Ross Mann ◽

Tim Sawbridge

Keyword(s):

Seed Production ◽

Perennial Ryegrass ◽

Fungal Endophyte ◽

Core Microbiome ◽

Growth Environment ◽

Epichloë Festucae ◽

Bacterial Microbiome ◽

Single Seeds ◽

Harvest Year ◽

Parental Plant

Research into the bacterial component of the seed microbiome has been intensifying, with the aim of understanding its structure and potential for exploitation. We previously studied the intergenerational seed microbiome of one cultivar of perennial ryegrass with and without one strain of the commercially deployed fungal endophyte Epichloë festucae var. lolii. The work described here expands on our previous study by exploring the bacterial seed microbiome of different commercial cultivar/Epichloë festucae var. lolii combinations in collections of single seeds from the harvest year 2016. In this dataset, a cultivar effect could be seen between the seed microbiomes from cultivars Alto and Trojan. The bacterial component of the seed microbiome from pooled seeds from a single cultivar/E. festucae var. lolii combination harvested from 13 seed production farms around Canterbury in the year 2018 was also studied. This dataset allows the effect of different production locations on the bacterial seed microbiome to be examined. By comparing the two sets of data, bacteria from the genera Pantoea, Pseudomonas, Duganella, Massilia, and an unknown Enterobacteriaceae were observed to be in common. This core bacterial microbiome was stable over time but could be affected by supplemental taxa derived from the growth environment of the parental plant; differing microbiomes were seen between different seed production farms. By comparison to a collection of bacterial isolates, we demonstrated that many of the members of the core microbiome were culturable. This allows for the possibility of exploiting these microbes in the future.

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Examining the Impacts of CO2 Concentration and Genetic Compatibility on Perennial Ryegrass—Epichloë festucae var lolii Interactions

Journal of Fungi ◽

10.3390/jof6040360 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. 360

Author(s):

Jennifer Geddes-McAlister ◽

Arjun Sukumaran ◽

Aurora Patchett ◽

Heather A. Hager ◽

Jenna C. M. Dale ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Lolium Perenne ◽

Perennial Ryegrass ◽

Carbon Fixation ◽

Plant Biomass ◽

Co2 Concentration ◽

Fungal Endophyte ◽

Genetic Profile ◽

Genetic Incompatibility ◽

Data Set ◽

Epichloë Festucae

Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) is the most cultivated cool-season grass worldwide with crucial roles in carbon fixation, turfgrass applications, and fodder for livestock. Lolium perenne forms a mutualism with the strictly vertically transmitted fungal endophyte, Epichloë festucae var lolii. The fungus produces alkaloids that protect the grass from herbivory, as well as conferring protection from drought and nutrient stress. The rising concentration of atmospheric CO2, a proximate cause of climatic change, is known to have many direct and indirect effects on plant growth. There is keen interest in how the nature of this plant–fungal interaction will change with climate change. Lolium perenne is an obligately outcrossing species, meaning that the genetic profile of the host is constantly being reshuffled. Meanwhile, the fungus is asexual implying both a relatively constant genetic profile and the potential for incompatible grass–fungus pairings. In this study, we used a single cultivar, “Alto”, of L. perenne. Each plant was infected with one of four strains of the endophyte: AR1, AR37, NEA2, and Lp19 (the “common strain”). We outcrossed the Alto mothers with pollen from a number of individuals from different ryegrass cultivars to create more genetic diversity in the hosts. We collected seed such that we had replicate maternal half-sib families. Seed from each family was randomly allocated into the two levels of the CO2 treatment, 400 and 800 ppm. Elevated CO2 resulted in an c. 18% increase in plant biomass. AR37 produced higher fungal concentrations than other strains; NEA2 produced the lowest fungal concentrations. We did not find evidence of genetic incompatibility between the host plants and the fungal strains. We conducted untargeted metabolomics and quantitative proteomics to investigate the grass-fungus interactions between and within family and treatment groups. We identified a number of changes in both the proteome and metabalome. Taken together, our data set provides new understanding into the intricacy of the interaction between endophyte and host from multiple molecular levels and suggests opportunity to promote plant robustness and survivability in rising CO2 environmental conditions through application of bioprotective epichloid strains.

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Effect of rhizobacteria strains on the induction of resistance in barley genotypes against Cochliobolus sativus

Hellenic Plant Protection Journal ◽

10.2478/hppj-2020-0009 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 83-92 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

A. Adam

Keyword(s):

Plant Growth ◽

Pseudomonas Putida ◽

Growth Parameters ◽

Disease Incidence ◽

Dry Weight ◽

Cochliobolus Sativus ◽

Resistance Level ◽

Wet Weight ◽

Number Of Leaves ◽

Barley Genotypes

SummaryEnhancement of the resistance level in plants by rhizobacteria has been proven in several pathosystems. This study investigated the ability of four rhizobacteria strains (Pseudomonas putida BTP1 and Bacillus subtilis Bs2500, Bs2504 and Bs2508) to promote the growth in three barley genotypes and protect them against Cochliobolus sativus. Our results demonstrated that all tested rhizobacteria strains had a protective effect on barley genotypes Arabi Abiad, Banteng and WI2291. However, P. putida BTP1 and B. subtilis Bs2508 strains were the most effective as they reduced disease incidence by 53 and 38% (mean effect), respectively. On the other hand, there were significant differences among the rhizobacteria-treated genotypes on plant growth parameters, such as wet weight, dry weight, plant height and number of leaves. Pseudomonas putida BTP1 strain was the most effective as it significantly increased plant growth by 15-32%. In addition, the susceptible genotypes Arabi Abiad and WI2291 were the most responsive to rhizobacteria. This means that these genotypes have a high potential for increase of their resistance against the pathogen and enhancement of plant growth after the application of rhizobacteria. Consequently, barley seed treatment with the tested rhizobacteria could be considered as an effective biocontrol method against C. sativus.

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Photosynthetic and yield traits identified through multivariate analysis in mungbean exhibiting tolerance to the combined stresses of low phosphorus and drought

Indian Journal of Genetics and Plant Breeding (The) ◽

10.31742/ijgpb.80.3.8 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 80 (03) ◽

Author(s):

Renu Pandey ◽

Surendra Kumar Meena ◽

Gayacharan . ◽

Madan Pal Singh

Keyword(s):

Canopy Temperature ◽

Principal Component ◽

Relative Increase ◽

Photosynthetic Parameters ◽

Combined Stresses ◽

P Content ◽

Low Phosphorus ◽

Relative Stress ◽

Relative Water ◽

Component Traits

Experiments were conducted to study the genotypic variability for tolerance to combined stresses of low availability of phosphorus (P) and drought in 14 mungbean [Vigna radiata (L.) R. Wilczek] accessions. The accessions were evaluated under four conditions viz., control (sufficient P, irrigated), low P (without P, irrigated), drought (sufficient P, withholding irrigation) and combined stresses (low P, withholding irrigation). The relative stress tolerance was estimated for 22 agro-physiological traits. The principal component analysis (PCA) and relative stress indices (RSIs) of traits exhibited significant variation among the treatments and accessions. Based on RSIs, the PCA ranking analysis showed that the accessions IC 280489, PDM 139 and IC 76491 were highly ranked and tolerant to low P, drought and combined stresses. The relative increase in component traits such as photosynthetic parameters, relative water content, above-ground biomass, seed P content and number of pods plant–1 were higher while canopy temperature and water use efficiency were reduced in tolerant accessions. In contrast, IPM 2-3 was found to be relatively sensitive to all three treatments. Tolerant accessions may be either included in the breeding program or used directly as cultivar that can be grown under low P and drought.

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