Centennial Honors College
Western Illinois University
Undergraduate Research Day 2012
Poster Presentation
Effect of a dominant endophytic fungus, Phialocephala fortinii, on plant growth
Poster Presentation
Katrina Sandona and Antonio Rosales
Faculty Mentor: Andrea Porras Alfaro
Biology
Plants in the alpine tundra rely on symbiotic relationships they have with microbial
communities to endure the harsh conditions of that environment. Endophytes are fungi
that live within a plant and little is known about the function of these fungi. The
objectives of this experiment were to isolate fungi found in plant seeds and roots from
the alpine tundra and determine their potential function on commercial plants. Seeds
and roots were surface sterilized and plated on malt extract agar. Isolates were
identified using ITS rDNA and Phialocephala fortinii was selected for germination
experiments. The fungus SS37 was plated in five culture jars containing malt extract
agar with antibiotics, after a week six surfaced sterilized seeds of Zea mays (corn) and
Glycine max (soybean) where planted in each jar. Five jars with no fungus were used as
controls. The seeds were allowed to grow for one week. Plants were then removed
from the jars; the roots and stems were measured. The fungus Phialocephala
stimulated the growth of corn seeds with an average number of roots of 8.4 with respect
to 2.4 for the control. While the soybeans with the Phialocephala had an average
number of roots of 8.6 while control had an average of 1.9. Phialocephala significantly
promoted the growth of two commercial plants. The use of endophytic fungi has
potential to reduce the need for fertilizers and additional studies are necessary to
understand the nature of the symbiotic relationships between plants and endophytes.