An Overview of Endophytic Microbes: Endophytism Defined

Abstract

To microbes, land plants present a complex, spatially and temporally diverse \necological habitat. Symbiotic associations between microorganisms and plants \nare ancient and fundamental, and many examples of complex and highly specific \nsymbioses between plants and microbes have been described in detail. Endophytic microbes are an intriguing group of organisms associated with various \ntissues and organs of terrestrial and some aquatic plants, and are the subject of \nincreasing interest to mycologists, ecologists, and plant pathologists. In general, \n"endophytic" infections are inconspicuous, the infected host tissues are at least \ntransiently symptomless, and the microbial colonization can be demonstrated to \nbe internal, either through histological means, by isolation from strongly surface \ndisinfected tissue, or, most recently, through direct amplification of fungal nuclear DNA from colonized plant tissue. Infections of land plants by endophytes \nare ubiquitous, having been found throughout a broad range of host orders, families, and genera worldwide, and representing a diverse array of terrestrial and \naquatic habitats.