Fungal endophyte Epichloë festucae may alter grass-host responses to abiotic stresses

Resumen del trabajo presentado en el 12th European Ecological Federation Congress, celebrado en Ávila (España) del 25 al 29 de septiembre de 2011Endophytes are a group of fungi characterized by being able to infect plants without causing obvious symptoms in their hosts. Recent studies have shown the existence of thousands of species of endophytic fungi, and no plant species free of them is known. Epichloë and Neotyphodium endophytes infect grasses and they are seed-transmitted. Because of the ecological benefits of infected plants there is a considerable interest in the use of these endophytic species for forage and turf grass improvement. The ‘Dehesa’ ecosystem is an agrosylvopastoral system with particular characteristics like high floristic diversity. Furthermore, in turn grass species contain a high diversity of fungal endophytic species. Previous studies have shown that 70% of Festuca rubra plants are infected by the fungal endophyte Epichloë festucae. This high infection rate suggests that infected plants have competitive advantages over non-infected plants. The main objective of this study was to determine the effect of the fungal endophyte Epichloë festucae in the growth of Festuca rubra plants under abiotic stress conditions like water stress and salinity. For this, nfected (E+) and noninfected (E-) plants from two different ecotypes of F. rubra were grown in pots in a glasshouse. The results showed an important effect of plant ecotype. In one ecotype, leaf biomass decreased under water stress; however, in the other ecotype E+ plants had greater biomass than E- plants and it did not decreased under water stress. Under saline conditions the decrease in leaf dry weight was greater in E+ than in E- plants