Ergovaline in populations of endophyte infected Festuca rubra subsp. pruinosa

Resumen del trabajo presentado en el 21th General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation. Sustainable Grassland Productivity, celebrado en Badajoz (España), del 3 al 6 de abril de 2006Festuca rubra subsp. pruinosa is a grass whose preferred habitat are coastal cliffs, a harsh environment where plants grow in cavities and are exposed to salt water spray. This grass species is systemically infected by the fimgal endophyte Epichlol! lestucae and the interaction is asymptomatic. Endophyte infected grasses produce severa! alkaloids toxic toherbivores. fu a previous work, we showed that an average of 69% of Festuca rubra subsp. pruinosa plants from cliff ecosystems (in the North Atlantic coast of Galicia regíon -Spain-) were infected by the endophyte Epichlol! lestucae. The main objective in this study was to determine whether endophyte infected plants of F. rubra pruinosa produce the ergovaline alkaloid, which is toxic to large herbivores. For this purpose infected plants ofF. rubra pruinosa, from four populations and at two different harvests were analysed for the presence of ergovaline. An average of 80% of the analysed plants, which were endophyte infected, contained ergovaline. The alkaloid was detectoo in the four populations. The concentration ranged from 0.05 -0.58 ¡J.g g.1 in the first harvest and between 0.06 and 1.90 ¡J.g g.1 in the second. The mean ergovaline content increased from the firs~ (0.14 ¡J.g g.l) to the second harvest (0.35 ¡J.g g'I)