Abstract
BACKGROUND: The endophytic fungus, Neotyphodium coenophialum, can enhance drought tolerance of its host grass, tall fescue. To investigate endophyte effects on plant responses to acute water deficit stress, we did comprehensive profiling of plant metabolite levels in both shoot and root tissues of genetically identical clone pairs of tall fescue with endophyte (E+) and without endophyte (E-) in response to direct water deficit stress. The E- clones were generated by treating E+ plants with fungicide and selectively propagating single tillers. In time course studies on the E+ and E- clones, water was withheld from 0 to 5 days, during which levels of free sugars, sugar alcohols, and amino acids were determined, as were levels of some major fungal metabolites.
RESULTS: After 2--3 days of withholding water, survival and tillering of re-watered plants was significantly greater for E+ than E- clones. Within two to three days of withholding water, significant endophyte effects on metabolites manifested as higher levels of free glucose, fructose, trehalose, sugar alcohols, proline and glutamic acid in shoots and roots. The fungal metabolites, mannitol and loline alkaloids, also significantly increased with water deficit.
CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that symbiotic N. coenophialum aids in survival and recovery of tall fescue plants from water deficit, and acts in part by inducing rapid accumulation of these compatible solutes soon after imposition of stress.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-9-2013
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2229-13-127
Repository Citation
Nagabhyru, Padmaja; Dinkins, Randy D.; Wood, Constance L.; Bacon, Charles W.; and Schardl, Christopher L., "Tall fescue endophyte effects on tolerance to water-deficit stress" (2013). Plant Pathology Faculty Publications. 15.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/plantpath_facpub/15
Photoactive radiation (PAR) at the sampling period.
1471-2229-13-127-s2.pdf (222 kB)
Total amounts of glucose, fructose, sucrose (GFS) in water-deficit stressed and unstressed plants of tall fescue clone pairs.
Notes/Citation Information
Published in BMC Plant Biology, v. 13, no. 127.
© 2013 Nagabhyru et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.