Centro de Investigação de Montanha (CIMO), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia, 5300-253, Bragança, Portugal.
Department of Engineering and Agricultural Science, University of Leon, Avda. Portugal No. 41, 24071, León, Spain.
Sci Rep. 2021 Jan 12;11(1):689. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-79962-z.
Fungal endophytes have been increasingly recognized to promote host plant protection to pathogens, but knowledge of the multiple effects that they could have in crop diseases is still scarce. This work attempts to understand the role of fungal endophytes in crop diseases, specifically in reducing disease development and interfering on lifestyle transition of the pathogen. To accomplish this, the endophytic fungal community of reproductive organs of olive tree from two orchards showing different levels of anthracnose incidence, a major disease of olive fruits, was characterized and compared between them. The two orchards showed distinct endophytic communities, differing in species richness, abundance and composition, with highest isolation rates and richness of endophytes in the orchard with low anthracnose incidence. These differences among orchards were greater on fruits than on flowers, suggesting that these changes in endophytic fungal composition may influence the lifestyle shifts in pathogen (from latent to pathogen). A number of fungal taxa were found to be positively associated to one of the two orchards. The fungal endophytes best correlated with high incidence of anthracnose are pathogens, while endophytes-associated to low anthracnose incidence are described to protect plants. Altogether, the results suggest varying pathogen-endophyte interactions among the two orchards.
真菌内生菌已被越来越多地认为可以促进宿主植物对病原体的保护，但它们在作物病害中可能具有多种影响的知识仍然很少。这项工作试图了解真菌内生菌在作物病害中的作用，特别是在减少病害发展和干扰病原体生活方式转变方面的作用。为了实现这一目标，对两个橄榄果园生殖器官的内生真菌群落进行了特征描述和比较，这两个果园的炭疽病发病率不同，炭疽病是橄榄果实的主要病害。这两个果园的内生群落明显不同，在物种丰富度、丰度和组成上存在差异，发病率低的果园内生菌的分离率和丰富度最高。果园之间的这些差异在果实上比在花朵上更大，表明内生真菌组成的这些变化可能影响病原体（从潜伏到病原体）的生活方式转变。发现一些真菌类群与两个果园中的一个呈正相关。与高炭疽病发病率最相关的真菌内生菌是病原体，而与低炭疽病发病率相关的内生菌被描述为保护植物。总之，结果表明两个果园之间存在不同的病原体-内生菌相互作用。
