Impact of endophytic fungi on seed and seedling characteristics in tall and meadow fescues

Tall fescue and meadow fescue are naturally infected with fungal endophytes, Neotyphodiumcoenophialum and Neotyphodium uncinatum, respectively. Seed traits are an important measureof the effects of the endophytic fungi which has been less addressed. In this study we usedendophyte-infected (EI) and endophyte-free (EF) clones of tall and meadow fescue genotypes inthe field to investigate the effects of endophytes on seed production traits and subsequently onseed germination and seedling emergence. Endophyte infection increased the plant seed weight,the number of seeds per plant and the number of panicles per plant in both plant species. Seedgermination was not affected by endophytes in tall fescue, while it was improved in endophyteinfected plants of meadow fescue. A negative endophyte effect was detectable for seedlingemergence percentage and emergence rate of tall fescue, whereas EI plants of meadow fescuewere positively affected by the endophyte for these characteristics. The better performance of EIplants for seed production traits may increase their relative fitness in populations and causethem to be more stable in different environmental conditions.

کلیدواژه ها:

Fescue ، Neotyphodium ، Seed yield ، Seed germination ، Seedling emergence