Survey of endophytic fungi in Agrostis clavata Trin. and an attempt to infect them on bentgrasses

Abstract

Agrostis clavata plants were collected from the Kanto districts to determine the presence of endophytec fungi and their effect on resistance to Bluegrass Webworm, Parapediasia teterrella. Out of the 128 plants examined, most (92.0%) appeared to be infected with endophytes. In the feeding assay using leaf segments, all the endophyte-free plants were damaged by the insect, while the presence of endophytes conferred the host plants resistance to the insect in most cases (82.7%) . It appeared that all the plants collected from the lowland (<500m) were infected with endophytes and resistant to the insect, while those from the highland (<1500m) included endophyte-free, and endophyte-infected but insect-sensitive plants, too. An attempt was made to infect the endophytes isolated to 20 varieties of bentgrasses by both methods using seedlings and plantlets regenerated from seed-derived embryogenic calli, without success.