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Abstract
Fungal endophytes have great potential as biocontrol and biofertilisation agents for food crops, and it is important to understand and optimise the cultural conditions for endophyte emergence and growth. A range of commercial culture media were tested for their effect on endophyte recovery from the roots of their host (Hordeum murinum), and for their subsequent growth and sporulation. Furthermore, a medium composed of sterile or filtered whole plant extract (WPE) was tested at various dilutions both alone and in combination with one of the commercial media. It was found that there were significant differences between the media in endophyte recovery, endophyte mycelial growth and time to sporulation. A significantly greater number of different endophytes were recovered from roots on the malt extract plus WPE medium than any of the other media tested here. Sabouraud medium gave the greatest mean radial growth of endophyte fungal mycelia after 35 days. The cultures growing on the WPE media took over five times longer to sporulate than all other media. Results indicate that different media are suitable either for the initial recovery and isolation of fungal root endophytes or for increasing fungal biomass and inducing earlier sporulation. The experimental endophytes used here have previously been shown to have biocontrol and biofertilisation benefits for barley cultivars, so our findings have important implications for the development and commercialisation of endophyte inocula.
Highlights
Sustainable alternatives to large agrichemical inputs are needed, and endophytes may provide part of the solution
We have found that the use of different agar-based cultural media results in significantly varied responses in a set of ten culturable fungal root endophytes isolated from populations of wall barley (Hordeum murinum ssp. murinum L)
Over the long term the endophyte cultures in the whole plant extract (WPE) media had a much more well defined mycelial growth character than that observed for the other media, with an almost fractal pattern
Summary
Sustainable alternatives to large agrichemical inputs are needed, and endophytes may provide part of the solution. Endophytes are microorganisms (bacteria, fungi and unicellular eukaryotes) which can live at least part of their life cycle inter- or intracellularly inside of plants usually without inducing pathogenic symptoms. This can include competent, facultative, obligate and opportunistic endophytes. Fungal root endophytes (hereafter ‘endophytes’) isolated from both unrelated plants (Stein, Molitor, Kogel, & Waller, 2008; Waller et al, 2005; Achatz et al, 2010; Murphy, Doohan, & Hodkinson, 2014b) and congeneric species (Murphy, Doohan, & Hodkinson, 2014c; Murphy, Doohan, & Hodkinson, 2015) have been shown to have yield and biocontrol benefits for cultivated barley (Hordeum vulgare) and other crop species. The benefits derived from the use of endophytes are being increasingly investigated, and many are being developed as crop inoculants and for other biotechnological applications (Singh et al, 2003; Behie & Bidochka, 2013; Kusari et al, 2014)
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