Background: Fungal endophytes occur ubiquitously in plants and are being increasingly studied for their ability to support plant health and protect the host from diseases. Using endophytes in disease control provides potential advantages compared to other biocontrol agents since they colonise the plant internally and thereby are protected by the host, thus potentially reducing environmental sensitivity. A thorough understanding of their mechanisms is required in their mutualistic association with plants; both to optimise their efficacy and for registration as plant protection products. Aims: To provide a critical review on the mechanisms employed by endophytic fungi in biological disease control. Furthermore, we draw attention to gaps in our knowledge of the complex interactions between plant, pathogen and endophyte and discuss implications for future research. Methods: Review of literature where endophytic colonisation during the specific interaction has been confirmed. Results: Known disease-reducing mechanisms include direct inhibition of pathogen activity by competition, antibiosis and mycoparasitism and indirect inhibition by induced resistance, where the plant’s own defence system is activated to combat the diseases. Relying on in vitro studies of alone can result in misleading conclusions. Conclusions: We need to investigate nature and requirements for establishment of successful plant-endophyte interactions, for development of efficient biocontrol agents.

Clonostachys rosea is a mycoparasitic fungus that can control several important plant diseases. Here, we report on the genome sequencing of C. rosea and a comparative genome analysis, in order to resolve the phylogenetic placement of C. rosea and to study the evolution of mycoparasitism as a fungal lifestyle. The genome of C. rosea is estimated to 58.3 Mb, and contains 14,268 predicted genes. A phylogenomic analysis shows that C. rosea clusters as sister taxon to plant pathogenic Fusarium species, with mycoparasitic/saprotrophic Trichoderma species in an ancestral position. A comparative analysis of gene family evolution reveals several distinct differences between the included mycoparasites. Clonostachys rosea contains significantly more ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters, polyketide synthases, cytochrome P450 monooxygenases, pectin lyases, glucose-methanol-choline oxidoreductases, and lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases compared with other fungi in the Hypocreales. Interestingly, the increase of ABC transporter gene number in C. rosea is associated with phylogenetic subgroups B (multidrug resistance proteins) and G (pleiotropic drug resistance transporters), whereas an increase in subgroup C (multidrug resistance-associated proteins) is evident in Trichoderma virens. In contrast with mycoparasitic Trichoderma species, C. rosea contains very few chitinases. Expression of six group B and group G ABC transporter genes was induced in C. rosea during exposure to the Fusarium mycotoxin zearalenone, the fungicide Boscalid or metabolites from the biocontrol bacterium Pseudomonas chlororaphis. The data suggest that tolerance toward secondary metabolites is a prominent feature in the biology of C. rosea.

Application of 3.6 mm silicon (Si+) to the rose (Rosa hybrida) cultivar Smart increased the concentration of antimicrobial phenolic acids and flavonoids in response to infection by rose powdery mildew (Podosphaera pannosa). Simultaneously, the expression of genes coding for key enzymes in the phenylpropanoid pathway (phenylalanine ammonia lyase, cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase, and chalcone synthase) was up-regulated. The increase in phenolic compounds correlated with a 46% reduction in disease severity compared with inoculated leaves without Si application (Si−). Furthermore, Si application without pathogen inoculation induced gene expression and primed the accumulation of several phenolics compared with the uninoculated Si− control. Chlorogenic acid was the phenolic acid detected in the highest concentration, with an increase of more than 80% in Si+ inoculated compared with Si− uninoculated plants. Among the quantified flavonoids, rutin and quercitrin were detected in the highest concentrations, and the rutin concentration increased more than 20-fold in Si+ inoculated compared with Si− uninoculated plants. Both rutin and chlorogenic acid had antimicrobial effects on P. pannosa, evidenced by reduced conidial germination and appressorium formation of the pathogen, both after spray application and infiltration into leaves. The application of rutin and chlorogenic acid reduced powdery mildew severity by 40% to 50%, and observation of an effect after leaf infiltration indicated that these two phenolics can be transported to the epidermal surface. In conclusion, we provide evidence that Si plays an active role in disease reduction in rose by inducing the production of antifungal phenolic metabolites as a response to powdery mildew infection.

Fungi living inside plants affect many aspects of plant health, but little is known about how plant genotype influences the fungal endophytic microbiome. However, a deeper understanding of interactions between plant genotype and biotic and abiotic environment in shaping the plant microbiome is of significance for modern agriculture, with implications for disease management, breeding and the development of biocontrol agents. For this purpose, we analysed the fungal wheat microbiome from seed to plant to seeds and studied how different potential sources of inoculum contributed to shaping of the microbiome. We conducted a large-scale pot experiment with related wheat cultivars over one growth-season in two environments (indoors and outdoors) to disentangle the effects of host genotype, abiotic environment (temperature, humidity, precipitation) and fungi present in the seed stock, air and soil on the succession of the endophytic fungal communities in roots, flag leaves and seeds at harvest. The communities were studied with ITS1 metabarcoding and environmental climate factors were monitored during the experimental period. Host genotype, tissue type and abiotic factors influenced fungal communities significantly. The effect of host genotype was mostly limited to leaves and roots, and was location-independent. While there was a clear effect of plant genotype, the relatedness between cultivars was not reflected in the microbiome. For the phyllosphere microbiome, location-dependent weather conditions factors largely explained differences in abundance, diversity, and presence of genera containing pathogens, whereas the root communities were less affected by abiotic factors. Our findings suggest that airborne fungi are the primary inoculum source for fungal communities in aerial plant parts whereas vertical transmission is likely to be insignificant. In summary, our study demonstrates that host genotype, environment and presence of fungi in the environment shape the endophytic fungal community in wheat over a growing season.

An ecological approach was used to select fungal antagonists effective against the seedborne pathogens Alternaria dauci and A. radicina on carrot. Twenty-five and 105 isolates originating from cereal and carrot habitats were screened against the pathogens in planta, respectively. Irrespective of isolate origin, fungal isolates belonging to Clonostachys rosea controlled pre- and postemergence death caused by A. dauci and A. radicina as effectively as the fungicide iprodione. Isolate IK726 of C. rosea was used in biopriming a seed lot with 29% A. radicina and 11% A. dauci (highly infected), and a seed lot with 4% A. radicina and 7% A. dauci (low infection). Seeds were primed with water alone (hydropriming) or with addition of C. rosea IK726 (biopriming). The occurrence of A. radicina and A. dauci increased twofold and fivefold, respectively, during 14 days hydropriming, irrespective of the initial infection level. On highly infected seed, biopriming reduced the incidence of A. radicina to <2.3% and that of A. dauci to <4.8% while the level of both pathogens was <0.5% on bioprimed seed with a low initial infection rate. In sand stand establishment tests, hydroprimed seeds had a lower healthy seedling stand than nonprimed seeds, mainly due to a high degree of postemergence seedling death. In contrast, biopriming resulted in a seedling stand that was better than that of both nonprimed and hydroprimed seeds. C. rosea IK726 multiplied fivefold to eightfold, and microscopic observations using C. rosea IK726 transformed with a green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter gene showed that seeds were covered with a fine web of sporulating mycelium of C. rosea. The positive effect of biopriming on healthy seedling stand remained after 5 months of storage at 4°C and IK726 survived at high numbers on these seed. In this study, we demonstrated that bio-priming with the biocontrol strain C. rosea IK726 facilitates priming of infected seeds without risking adverse effects on seedling establishment.