The Sebacinoid Fungus Piriformospora indica: an Orchid Mycorrhiza Which May Increase Host Plant Reproduction and Fitness

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Plants are potential targets (hosts) for a broad spectrum of microbial organisms. The outcome of these associations can be roughly categorised into mutualistic, commensalistic or pathogenic relationships. Interactions with certain mutualistic fungal microbes can benefit plants, resulting for example in an improved plant development even under unfavourable environmental conditions (Chap. 15). Simultaneously, the microbial partners acquire nutrients from the host and can be protected from environmental stress or competitors (Schulz and Boyle 2005). In other cases it is the microbes that primarily profit from the association, with the host fitness being either apparently unaffected (commensalism) or thoroughly impaired (pathogenesis; Redman et al. 2001).