Loline alkaloid production by fungal endophytes of Fescue species select for particular epiphytic bacterial microflora.

ABSTRACT: The leaves of fescue grasses are protected from herbivores by the production of loline alkaloids by the mutualist fungal endophytes Neotyphodium sp. or Epichloë sp. Most bacteria that reside on the leaf surface of such grasses can consume these defensive chemicals. Loline-consuming bacteria are rare on the leaves of other plant species. Several bacterial species including Burkholderia ambifaria recovered from tall fescue could use N-formyl loline as a sole carbon and nitrogen source in culture and achieved population sizes that were about eightfold higher when inoculated onto plants harboring loline-producing fungal endophytes than on plants lacking such endophytes or which were colonized by fungal variants incapable of loline production. In contrast, mutants of B. ambifaria and other bact

SUBMITTER: Roberts E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3906823 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature