Diversity and Molecular Systematics of Plant Endophytic Fungi
A special issue of Journal of Fungi (ISSN 2309-608X). This special issue belongs to the section "Fungal Cell Biology, Metabolism and Physiology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 6239
Special Issue Editors
Interests: plant-fungus interactions; microbial ecology; microbiomes; mycorrhizal fungi; endophytes; fungal pathogens
Interests: fungal genomics; mycobiome composition; plant-interacting fungi; fungal pathogens
Interests: fungal diversity; preservation and valorization; fungal ecology; microbial biobanks; microbiomes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Plants have an outstanding ability to establish relationships with a vast array of microbes, either horizontally or vertically acquired. Fungi are prominent, diversified members of the plant microbiome, and the establishment of fungal endophytism in plant roots is dated back to 450 million years ago. Endophytic fungi are asymptomatic colonizers of plant tissues and can be found intracellularly or in the intercellular space, a niche that is reserved for them for a part or the totality of the plant life cycle. This ubiquitous, mutualistic interaction is supported by the fungal ability to increase plant growth and stress resistance, mainly through direct nutrient exchange, the production of hormone-like molecules, effector-mediated priming of immune responses, and the production of secondary metabolites that mimic host-derived metabolites. Molecular tools fueled the current knowledge about endophytic fungi, some of which cannot be reproduced axenically. The description of fungal endophytes is fundamental from an evolutionary perspective to detect common patterns across the plant kingdom, for application in agriculture and medicine, but also because mutualistic strains are often close relatives of pathogenic or mycotoxigenic ones. In this Special Issue, we welcome original and review papers regarding the characterization of fungal endophytes, with a focus on molecular approaches.
Prof. Dr. Lorenzo Pecoraro
Dr. Francesco Venice
Prof. Dr. Giovanna Cristina Varese
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- molecular ecology
- endophytic community
- plant–fungi associations
- phylogeny
- symbiotic evolution
- plant growth promotion
- antagonism
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