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Interactive effects of Epichloë fungal and host origins on the seed germination of Achnatherum inebrians

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Abstract

Cool-season grasses have developed a symbiotic relationship with Epichloë endophytes. In many environments, Epichloë endophytes have been shown to be mutualistic symbionts of plants by increasing the fitness of their host against abiotic or biotic stresses. The effects of Epichloë endophytes on other fitness-correlated plant characteristics are less intensively studied, and the results are usually variable and contradictory. In this study, we evaluated the effects of endophyte infection on seed germination in Achnatherum inebrians from four origins. Our results indicate that the germination rate of the seeds collected from alpine regions was higher at low temperatures than that of seeds with desert and arid grassland origins. By contrast, a higher germination percentage was detected in seeds with desert and arid grassland origins than in those with alpine origins in higher temperatures. Epichloë endophyte infection affects the cardinal temperatures of seeds from different origins. Endophyte-infected seeds have a lower base temperature and a higher ceiling temperature than their endophyte-free counterparts. The value of the base temperature was higher in seeds with alpine grassland origins than in those with desert and arid grassland origins. However, the ceiling temperature was higher in seeds with desert and arid grassland origins than in those with alpine grassland origins. Consequently, future experiments should consider the effects of endophytes on seed germination and seedling recruitment in suboptimal climatic conditions.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Prof. Xiaowen Hu and Carol C. Baskin for their constructive suggestions in interpreting the results of the study and Ph.D. students Xiuzhang Li and Xuekai Wei for providing technical support. This research was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (31660690, 31700098), the Program for Qinghai Province Thousand Talent Innovative Plan, Key Laboratory of Superior Forage Germplasm in the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau (2017-ZJ-Y12) and the Academy of Finland (grant nos. 295976 and 326226).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Plateau Ecology and Agriculture, Qinghai University, Xining, 810003, China

    Gensheng Bao, Meiling Song, Yuqin Wang & Hongsheng Wang

  2. Key Laboratory of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Forage Gerplasm Research, Academy of Animal and Veterinary Medicine, Qinghai University, Xining, 810016, China

    Gensheng Bao, Meiling Song, Yuqin Wang & Hongsheng Wang

  3. Biodiversity Unit, University of Turku, 20014, Turku, Finland

    Kari Saikkonen

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  1. Gensheng Bao
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Fig. S1

Molecular phylogeny derived from the maximum likelihood analysis of introns of the tefA gene from related Epichloë species and Achnatherum inebrians seeds originating from Dy, Td, Tl and Al. The tree was rooted with Claviceps purpurea 20.1 as the outgroup. The percentage of trees in which associated taxa are clustered together is shown next to the branches. The three gene copies in the hybrid endophyte, Epichloë coenophiala, are labeled with single-letter abbreviations of the extant Epichloë species related to its three ancestors. (JPG 939 kb)

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Bao, G., Song, M., Wang, Y. et al. Interactive effects of Epichloë fungal and host origins on the seed germination of Achnatherum inebrians. Symbiosis 79, 49–58 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13199-019-00636-0

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