Novel symbiotic protoplasts formed by endophytic fungi explain their hidden existence, lifestyle switching, and diversity within the plant kingdom.

ABSTRACT: Diverse fungi live all or part of their life cycle inside plants as asymptomatic endophytes. While endophytic fungi are increasingly recognized as significant components of plant fitness, it is unclear how they interact with plant cells; why they occur throughout the fungal kingdom; and why they are associated with most fungal lifestyles. Here we evaluate the diversity of endophytic fungi that are able to form novel protoplasts called mycosomes. We found that mycosomes cultured from plants and phylogenetically diverse endophytic fungi have common morphological characteristics, express similar developmental patterns, and can revert back to the free-living walled state. Observed with electron microscopy, mycosome ontogeny within Aureobasidium pullulans may involve two organelles: double memb

SUBMITTER: Atsatt PR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4002429 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature