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Pathogens
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Endophytes in Plant Health and Disease
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Endophytes in Plant Health and Disease

A special issue of Pathogens (ISSN 2076-0817).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2021) | Viewed by 16549

Special Issue Editor

Assoc. Prof. Paul L. Guy

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
Interests: plant virology; plant pathology; grass endophytes

Special Issue Information

Dear colleagues,

We have known about and even ritualised plant disease since ancient times. We devised ways to minimise their effects, even before we understood the causes of plant disease. However, we did not suspect until relatively recently that we were not alone in the fight against disease. In 2019, we celebrated the 150th anniversary of Schwendener’s landmark paper revealing that lichens are not plants but a collaboration between fungi and microalgae. This discovery was considered a botanical heresy at the time, because it did not appear to fit with the Darwinian struggle for survival. Later, it was realised that the mutualist partners increased their fitness in this symbiosis.

It is not until the modern era that we are finally realising that no species is an island complete unto itself. Every multicellular organism that has been studied in any depth is now known to be a habitat for a range of microorganisms. Plants are no exception. The relationships between plants and their microbiome, usually referred to as their endophytes, is varied: Some are commensals, some mutualists and some parasites. The relationships are dynamic and our classification of them is fluid, as a number of abiotic and biotic factors can have marked effects on these relationships.

In this Special Issue, we are focussing on the effects endophytes are having on plant health. Plants are subjected to a variety of abiotic and biotic stresses. Increasingly, we are understanding that endophytes play a role in mitigating these stresses. Concentrating on plant disease, we see that endophytes directly and indirectly inhibit pathogens. Some endophytes modulate signalling pathways and prime the host’s defence systems. Others produce secondary metabolites that have antifungal and antibiotic activity and even anticancer activity. These endophytes are being manipulated to improve plant health and for a range of medical and biotech applications.

Assoc. Prof. Paul L. Guy
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • endophytes
  • fungi
  • bacteria
  • viruses
  • mutualists
  • parasites
  • saprophytes
  • abiotic stress
  • biotic stress

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 3280 KiB  
Article
Expression Patterns of miR398, miR167, and miR159 in the Interaction between Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and Pathogenic Fusarium culmorum and Beneficial Trichoderma Fungi
by Sylwia Salamon, Julia Żok, Karolina Gromadzka and Lidia Błaszczyk
Pathogens 2021, 10(11), 1461; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10111461 - 11 Nov 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2489
Abstract
Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is an agronomically significant cereal cultivated worldwide. Wheat breeding is limited by numerous abiotic and biotic stresses. One of the most deleterious factors is biotic stress provoked by the Fusarium culmorum fungus. This pathogen is [...] Read more.
Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is an agronomically significant cereal cultivated worldwide. Wheat breeding is limited by numerous abiotic and biotic stresses. One of the most deleterious factors is biotic stress provoked by the Fusarium culmorum fungus. This pathogen is a causative agent of Fusarium root rot and Fusarium head blight. Beneficial fungi Trichoderma atroviride and T. cremeum are strong antagonists of mycotoxigenic Fusarium spp. These fungi promote plant growth and enhance their tolerance of negative environmental conditions. The aim of the study was to determine and compare the spatial (in above- and underground organs) and temporal (early: 6 and 22 hpi; and late: 5 and 7 dpi reactions) expression profiles of three mature miRNAs (miR398, miR167, and miR159) in wheat plants inoculated with two strains of F. culmorum (KF846 and EW49). Moreover, the spatial expression patterns in wheat response between plants inoculated with beneficial T. atroviride (AN35) and T. cremeum (AN392) were assessed. Understanding the sophisticated role of miRNAs in wheat–fungal interactions may initiate a discussion concerning the use of this knowledge to protect wheat plants from the harmful effects of fungal pathogens. With the use of droplet digital PCR (ddPCR), the absolute quantification of the selected miRNAs in the tested material was carried out. The differential accumulation of miR398, miR167, and miR159 in the studied groups was observed. The abundance of all analyzed miRNAs in the roots demonstrated an increase in the early and reduction in late wheat response to F. culmorum inoculation, suggesting the role of these particles in the initial wheat reaction to the studied fungal pathogen. The diverse expression patterns of the studied miRNAs between Trichoderma–inoculated or F. culmorum–inoculated plants and control wheat, as well as between Trichoderma–inoculated and F. culmorum–inoculated plants, were noticed, indicating the need for further analysis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Endophytes in Plant Health and Disease)
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11 pages, 13593 KiB  
Article
Culturable Seed Microbiota of Populus trichocarpa
by Sabrina Heitmann, Gillian E. Bergmann, Edward Barge, Mary Ridout, George Newcombe and Posy E. Busby
Pathogens 2021, 10(6), 653; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10060653 - 24 May 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2515
Abstract
Plants harbor a diverse community of microbes, whose interactions with their host and each other can influence plant health and fitness. While microbiota in plant vegetative tissues has been extensively studied, less is known about members of the seed microbiota. We used culture-based [...] Read more.
Plants harbor a diverse community of microbes, whose interactions with their host and each other can influence plant health and fitness. While microbiota in plant vegetative tissues has been extensively studied, less is known about members of the seed microbiota. We used culture-based surveys to identify bacteria and fungi found in the seeds of the model tree, Populus trichocarpa, collected from different sites. We found that individual P. trichocarpa seeds typically contained zero or one microbe, with common taxa including species of Cladosporium, Aureobasidium, Diaporthe, Alternaria, and Pseudomonas, a bacterium. Pseudomonas isolates were associated with seed mortality and were negatively associated with the occurrence of fungal isolates within Epicoccum, Alternaria, and Aureobasidium from the same seed. Next, we conducted an inoculation experiment with one of the isolated seed microbes, Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae, and found that it reduced seed germination and increased seedling mortality for P. trichocarpa. Our findings highlight common fungi and bacteria in the seeds of P. trichocarpa, prompting further study of their functional consequences. Moreover, our study confirms that P. syringae pv. syringae is a seed pathogen of P. trichocarpa and is the first report that P. syringae pv. syringae is a lethal seedling pathogen of P. trichocarpa, allowing for future work on the pathogenicity of this bacterium in seedlings and potential antagonism with other seed microbes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Endophytes in Plant Health and Disease)
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29 pages, 4775 KiB  
Article
Differences in the Endophytic Microbiome of Olive Cultivars Infected by Xylella fastidiosa across Seasons
by Annalisa Giampetruzzi, Paula Baptista, Massimiliano Morelli, Cristina Cameirão, Teresa Lino Neto, Daniela Costa, Giusy D’Attoma, Raied Abou Kubaa, Giuseppe Altamura, Maria Saponari, José Alberto Pereira and Pasquale Saldarelli
Pathogens 2020, 9(9), 723; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens9090723 - 2 Sep 2020
Cited by 46 | Viewed by 6761
Abstract
The dynamics of Xylella fastidiosa infections in the context of the endophytic microbiome was studied in field-grown plants of the susceptible and resistant olive cultivars Kalamata and FS17. Whole metagenome shotgun sequencing (WMSS) coupled with 16S/ITS rRNA gene sequencing was carried out on [...] Read more.
The dynamics of Xylella fastidiosa infections in the context of the endophytic microbiome was studied in field-grown plants of the susceptible and resistant olive cultivars Kalamata and FS17. Whole metagenome shotgun sequencing (WMSS) coupled with 16S/ITS rRNA gene sequencing was carried out on the same trees at two different stages of the infections: In Spring 2017 when plants were almost symptomless and in Autumn 2018 when the trees of the susceptible cultivar clearly showed desiccations. The progression of the infections detected in both cultivars clearly unraveled that Xylella tends to occupy the whole ecological niche and suppresses the diversity of the endophytic microbiome. However, this trend was mitigated in the resistant cultivar FS17, harboring lower population sizes and therefore lower Xylella average abundance ratio over total bacteria, and a higher α-diversity. Host cultivar had a negligible effect on the community composition and no clear associations of a single taxon or microbial consortia with the resistance cultivar were found with both sequencing approaches, suggesting that the mechanisms of resistance likely reside on factors that are independent of the microbiome structure. Overall, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteriodetes dominated the bacterial microbiome while Ascomycota and Basidiomycota those of Fungi. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Endophytes in Plant Health and Disease)
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Review

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26 pages, 2133 KiB  
Review
Fungi Inhabiting the Wheat Endosphere
by Lidia Błaszczyk, Sylwia Salamon and Katarzyna Mikołajczak
Pathogens 2021, 10(10), 1288; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10101288 - 7 Oct 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3780
Abstract
Wheat production is influenced by changing environmental conditions, including climatic conditions, which results in the changing composition of microorganisms interacting with this cereal. The group of these microorganisms includes not only endophytic fungi associated with the wheat endosphere, both pathogenic and symbiotic, but [...] Read more.
Wheat production is influenced by changing environmental conditions, including climatic conditions, which results in the changing composition of microorganisms interacting with this cereal. The group of these microorganisms includes not only endophytic fungi associated with the wheat endosphere, both pathogenic and symbiotic, but also those with yet unrecognized functions and consequences for wheat. This paper reviews the literature in the context of the general characteristics of endophytic fungi inhabiting the internal tissues of wheat. In addition, the importance of epigenetic regulation in wheat–fungus interactions is recognized and the current state of knowledge is demonstrated. The possibilities of using symbiotic endophytic fungi in modern agronomy and wheat cultivation are also proposed. The fact that the current understanding of fungal endophytes in wheat is based on a rather small set of experimental conditions, including wheat genotypes, plant organs, plant tissues, plant development stage, or environmental conditions, is recognized. In addition, most of the research to date has been based on culture-dependent methods that exclude biotrophic and slow-growing species and favor the detection of fast-growing fungi. Additionally, only a few reports of studies on the entire wheat microbiome using high-throughput sequencing techniques exist. Conducting comprehensive research on the mycobiome of the endosphere of wheat, mainly in the context of the possibility of using this knowledge to improve the methods of wheat management, mainly the productivity and health of this cereal, is needed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Endophytes in Plant Health and Disease)
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