Life of Microbes Inside the Plant: Beneficial Fungal Endophytes and Mycorrhizal Fungi

This chapter focuses on fungal endophytes with a recognized beneficial impact on plants and on a special group of endophytes, the mycorrhizal fungi. It describes the interaction at the cellular level, emphasizes the functional significance of the associations and the impact of the fungal symbionts on the host plant, and illustrates potential applications. The term endophyte therefore refers to the location, that is, inside plant tissues, irrespective of being inside the cells or among the cells, and does not specify the nature of the relationship established with the host plant. Under the word “mycorrhizas” - literally fungus-root interaction - the chapter includes several types of interactions which have originated over 400 million years of co-evolution between plants and fungi. Genomic regions containing genes related to defense and cell wall metabolism were reported to be associated with the low colonization level detected in some genotypes.