Abstract Detail

The Role of Boundaries in Plant Diversification

Arnold, A. Elizabeth [1].

Interactions across boundaries promote symbiotic modulation of plant phenotypes .

Microbial symbionts of plants respond to and modulate plant phenotypes in ways visible to selection and relevant to diversification. Fungal associates of plants, including diverse pathogens, mycorrhizae, and endophytes, influence plant physiology from seed germination to the onset of senescence, and with saprotrophs shape the processes of nutrient cycling and release that drive ecosystem function. Increasingly it is clear that these fungi themselves harbor endosymbiotic bacteria. Interactions between fungi and their bacterial endosymbionts ultimately shape the extended phenotypes that result from fungal-plant interactions, modulating plant traits relevant to physiology, stress tolerance, reproduction, and survival. Here I will focus on endosymbiotic bacteria that occur within fungal endophytes to highlight how interdomain and interkingdom interactions can shape plant biology in natural systems. Ultimately such symbiont-mediated modulation of plant phenotypes has the potential to contribute directly to the diversification of the microbial, fungal, and plant associations on which human sustainability depends.

1 - University of Arizona, School of Plant Sciences/Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 1140 E South Campus Drive, Forbes 303, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

Keywords:
Endophyte
Microbial
Ecology.

Presentation Type: Symposium Presentation
Session: SY7, The Role of Boundaries in Plant Diversification - with Presentation of Pelton Award to Dr. Shirley Tucker
Location: Sundance 3/Omni Hotel
Date: Wednesday, June 28th, 2017
Time: 4:15 PM
Number: SY7007
Abstract ID:393
Candidate for Awards:None