Within a plant, there can exist an ecosystem of pathogens and endophytes, the latter described as bacterial and fungal inhabitants that thrive without causing disease to the host. Interactions between microbial inhabitants represent a novel area of study for natural products research. Here we analyzed the interactions between the fungal endophytes of Taxus (yew) trees. Fungal endophytes of Taxu...

Beauveria bassiana strain 04/01-Tip, obtained from a larva of the opium poppy stem gall wasp Iraella luteipes (Hymenoptera; Cynipidae), endophytically colonizes opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) plants and protects them against this pest. The goal of this study was to monitor the dynamics of endophytic colonization of opium poppy by B. bassiana after the fungus was applied to the seed and to ...

A procedure was developed to isolate and determine ergot alkaloid production by Acremonium coenophialum, the endophytic fungus of tall fescue. The procedure established that macerated leaf sheath or pith from inRorescence stem placed either in a liquid medium or on a corn meal-malt extract agar medium produced isolated mycelium and characteristic conidia within a 3to 3.5-week period. Once isola...

BACKGROUND Sugarcane is one of the most important crops in Brazil, mainly because of its use in biofuel production. Recent studies have sought to determine the role of sugarcane endophytic microbial diversity in microorganism-plant interactions, and their biotechnological potential. Epicoccum nigrum is an important sugarcane endophytic fungus that has been associated with the biological control...

Locoweed plants in the southwestern United States often harbour a slow-growing endophytic fungus, Undifilum oxytropis (Phylum: Ascomycota; Order: Pleosporales), which produces a toxic alkaloid, swainsonine. Consumption of U. oxytropis by grazing animals induces a neurological disorder called locoism for which the toxic alkaloid swainsonine has been reported to be the causal agent. Little is kno...

Epichloë festucae forms a mutualistic symbiotic association with Lolium perenne. This biotrophic fungus systemically colonizes the intercellular spaces of aerial tissues to form an endophytic hyphal network. E. festucae also grows as an epiphyte, but the mechanism for leaf surface colonization is not known. Here we identify an appressorium-like structure, which we call an expressorium that allo...

Tall fescue (Festuca rundinacea) plants can be infected with the endophytic fungus Acremonium coenophialum. This fungus, which grows subcutaneously in leaves, stems, and seeds, does not undergo sexual reproduction or sporulate, and cannot survive outside the plant (Clay 1988). The fungus is passed from one generation to the next through infected seed. A mutualistic relationship exists between t...

Beginning with the report by Stierle and Strobel in 1993 on taxol((R)) production by an endophytic fungus (Stierle et al., 1993), it is possible that a number of the agents now used as leads to treatments of diseases in man, are not produced by the plant or invertebrate host from which they were first isolated and identified. They are probably the product of a microbe in, on or around the macro...

Endophytic fungi were isolated from healthy leaves of Indigofera suffruticosa Miller, a medicinal plant found in Brazil which is used in folk medicine to treat various diseases. Among 65 endophytic fungi isolated, 18 fungi showed activity against at least one tested microorganism in preliminary screening, and the best results were obtained with Nigrospora sphaerica (URM-6060) and Pestalotiopsis...

In fungi a genetic system ensures that enzymes are secreted mainly at ambient pH values corresponding to their optima of activity. Although a great deal of information has been obtained concerning this environmental response, there is a lack of studies involving phytopathogenic, endophytic and entomopathogenic fungi as well as different aspects of fungus-host interactions. This study compares i...