Endophytes in General Questions

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Endophytes in General Questions

Question 1 How are latent infection and endophyte differentiated when the plant is viewed on one occasion under one set of circumstances?

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Answer 1

The interaction between a fungus and plant is complex. The two states cannot be differentiated except using quite clear experimental processes based on long term observations, under a range of environmental conditions. The history of specific interactions is more commonly used to determine whether a fungus should be treated as a potential pathogen or beneficial symbiont.

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Question 2 Under what conditions might an endophyte initiate disease?

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Answer 2

Any environmental condition that places the plant or plant part under stress is a possible trigger for disease.

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Question 3 How does the plant control development of colonisation within the leaf tissue?

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Answer 3

It is not clear that the plant does always control development of colonies. Fungi such as Alternaria may be isolated at quite high densities from within leaves, and these may be one colony. However, the endophytic plant also has much higher concentrations of induced defence compounds which are thought to limit spread of colonies.

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Question 4 There are no further questions for this topic.

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