This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Endophyte is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (March 2008) |
An endophyte is an endosymbiont, often a bacterium or fungus, that lives within a plant for at least part of its life without causing apparent disease. Endophytes are ubiquitous and have been found in all the species of plants studied to date; however, most of these endophyte/plant relationships are not well understood.
Endophytes may be transmitted either vertically (directly from parent to offspring) or horizontally (from individual to unrelated individual). Vertically transmitted fungal endophytes are asexual and transmit via fungal hyphae penetrating the host’s seeds (e.g. Neotyphodium). Since their reproductive fitness is intimately tied to that of their host plant, these fungi are often mutualistic. Conversely, horizontally transmitted fungal endophytes are sexual and transmit via spores that can be spread by wind and/or insect vectors. Since they spread in a similar way to pathogens, horizontally transmitted endophytes are often closely related to pathogenic fungi, though they are not pathogenic themselves.
Some are likely to be host specific, while endophytes are known to colonize multiple species of plants. Endophytic species are very diverse; it is thought that only a small minority of all existing endophytes have been characterized. A single leaf of a plant can harbor many different species of endophytes, both bacterial and fungal.
Endophytes may benefit host plants by preventing pathogenic organisms from colonizing them. Extensive colonization of the plant tissue by endophytes creates a "barrier effect", where the local endophytes outcompete and prevent pathogenic organisms from taking hold. Endophytes may also utilize chemicals which inhibit the growth of competitors, including pathogenic organisms. The presence of fungal endophytes has been shown to cause higher rates of water loss in leaves.
The wide range of compounds produced by endophytes have been shown to combat pathogens and even cancers in animals including humans. One notable endophyte with medicinal benefits to humans produces taxol, and is found in the Pacific Yew tree. Endophytes are also being investigated for roles in agriculture. Inoculating crop plants with certain endophytes may provide increased disease or parasite resistance. It is speculated that there may be many thousands of endophytes useful to mankind but since there are few scientists working in this field, and since forests and areas of biodiversity are rapidly being destroyed, many useful endophytes for curing disease might be permanently lost for medicinal use before they are discovered. The effects of climate change on endophytes is being investigated. Studies of plants grown at different climates or at increased carbon dioxide levels have different distributions of endophytic species
Endophytes can be identified in several ways, usually through amplifying and sequencing a small piece of DNA. Some endophytes can be cultured from a small piece of their host plant in an appropriate growth medium. Not all endophytes present can be cultured in this way because amplification ground up plant tissue using fungal or bacterial specific primers has revealed the existence cryptic species.
External links
- "Endophytes and their promise for new medicines and products for agriculture and industry". Jewels of the Jungle. Retrieved on 2008-03-12.
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 11 July 2008, at 20:32.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Endophyte".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.