Endophytes for a Growing World

The book brings together papers covering the most recent scientific research from the top endophyte researchers in the world. It presents the state of the art in our knowledge and technical capacity and explores future directions of this work. It is highly relevant and timely because of the need to improve global food security and its sustainability, and also to provide novel bioactive molecules for medicine. There is also a need to protect forestry in a changing and growing world. Endophytes offer a huge potential to reduce environmentally damaging agricultural inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides. They are also a largely overlooked group of organisms where much basic science remains to be undertaken. For example, new molecular tools of DNA profiling using high throughput environmental sequencing are allowing the exploration of a previously largely unknown resource. There is a pressing need to convert scientific research on endophytes into practical application. This book describes how that will be achieved.

Part I. Introduction: 1. Endophytes for a growing world Trevor R. Hodkinson and Brian R. Murphy; Part II. Role of Endophytes in Growth and Biotic and Abiotic Stress Resistance: 2. Searching for novel fungal biological control agents for plant disease control among endophytes David B. Collinge, Hans J. L. Jørgensen, Meike A. C. Latz, Andrea Manzotti, Fani Ntana, Edward C. Rojas and Birgit Jensen; 3. Application of formulated endophytic entomopathogenic fungi for novel plant protection strategies Vivien Krell, Desirée Jakobs-Schoenwandt and Anant V. Patel; 4. Crossing frontiers: endophytic entomopathogenic fungi for biological control of plant diseases Lorena Barra-Bucarei, Andrés France and Paz Millas; 5. Emerging methods for biological control of barley diseases including the role of endophytes Anna K. Høyer, Hans J. L. Jørgensen, Birgit Jensen, Brian R. Murphy and Trevor R. Hodkinson; 6. Phosphate nutrition in root-fungus interactions Wael Yakti, Diana R. Andrade-Linares, Bernard Ngwene, Michael Bitterlich, Gábor M. Kovács and Philipp Franken; 7. From darkness to light: emergence of the mysterious dark septate endophytes in plant growth promotion and stress alleviation Charlotte Berthelot, Michel Chalot, Corinne Leyval and Damien Blaudez; Part III. Diversity and Community Ecology of Endophytes: 8. Microbispora dominate diversity of endophytic actinobacteria from Australian rice plants Fitri Widiantini and Christopher Franco; 9. Isolation, diversity and potential use of endophytes in the biomass and bioenergy crop miscanthus Jet Beekwilder, Brian R. Murphy, Eoin Mac Mathuna, Aaron Barry and Trevor R. Hodkinson; 10. Life within the leaf: ecology and applications of foliar bacterial endophytes Ruth C. McNees, Isaac V. Greenhut, Audrey D. Law, Muhammad Saleem and Luke A. Moe; 11. Meta-omics approach to unravel the endophytic bacterial communities of brassica napus and agronomically important other crops in response to agricultural practices Ridhdhi Rathore, Kieran J. Germaine, Patrick D. Forristal, John Spink and David N. Dowling; 12. The influence of endophytes on quercus suber forests under a changing climate Daniela Costa, Rui M. Tavares, Paula Baptista and Teresa Lino-Neto; Part IV. Endophytes for Novel Biomolecules and In Vitro Methods: 13. Endophytic fungi: a quintessential source of potential bioactive compounds Vineet Meshram and Mahiti Gupta; 14. Enhancing secondary metabolite production in medicinal plants using endophytic elicitors: a case study of centella asiatica (apiaceae) and asiaticoside Shubhpriya Gupta and Preeti Chaturvedi; 15. In vitro methods for plant-microbe interaction and biocontrol studies in European ash (Fraxinus Excelsior L.) Anindita Lahiri, Gerry C. Douglas, Brian R. Murphy and Trevor R. Hodkinson; Part V. Application and Commercialisation of Endophytes in Crop Production: 16. The science required to deliver epichloë endophytes to commerce Linda J. Johnson and John R. Caradus; 17. Plant growth promoting bacteria field trials in Europe Karen O'Hanlon; 18. Prospecting crop wild relatives for beneficial endophytes Brian R. Murphy, Fiona M. Doohan and Trevor R. Hodkinson.

Trevor R. Hodkinson is a Professor in Botany and Head of the Botany Molecular Laboratory, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. His research is mainly focused in fields known as endophyte biology, molecular systematics and genetic resource characterisation. He has specialist knowledge of the grass family and of forest tree genetics/mycorrhizae.
Fiona M. Doohan is a Professor of Plant Pathology at University College Dublin, Ireland. Her research interests lie in the control of plant diseases through host genetics and via biological control. Her specialist area of knowledge is the control of cereal diseases. She has led several international consortia on this topic and collaborated extensively with industry and academic partners globally.
Matthew J. Saunders is an Assistant Professor in Plant Science in the Botany Department, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. His research involves the area of environmental physiology, with particular emphasis on how plants respond to changes in their physical, chemical and biological environments and how this information can be used to assess the resilience and adaptive capacity of terrestrial ecosystems to global environmental change.
Brian R. Murphy is a Research Fellow in the Botany Department at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. From an Irish perspective, he is largely responsible for the exciting research and associated publications relating to fungal endophyte application in agriculture. He is recognised as a leading expert in endophyte discovery from wild relatives of crops and their application to increasing stress resistance in cereal crops.