TY - JOUR A1 - König, Julia A1 - Guerreiro, Marco Alexandre A1 - Peršoh, Derek A1 - Begerow, Dominik A1 - Krauss, Jochen T1 - Knowing your neighbourhood - the effects of Epichloë endophytes on foliar fungal assemblages in perennial ryegrass in dependence of season and land-use intensity JF - PeerJ N2 - Epichloë endophytes associated with cool-season grass species can protect their hosts from herbivory and can suppress mycorrhizal colonization of the hosts’ roots. However, little is known about whether or not Epichloë endophyte infection can also change the foliar fungal assemblages of the host. We tested 52 grassland study sites along a land-use intensity gradient in three study regions over two seasons (spring vs. summer) to determine whether Epichloë infection of the host grass Lolium perenne changes the fungal community structure in leaves. Foliar fungal communities were assessed by Next Generation Sequencing of the ITS rRNA gene region. Fungal community structure was strongly affected by study region and season in our study, while land-use intensity and infection with Epichloë endophytes had no significant effects. We conclude that effects on non-systemic endophytes resulting from land use practices and Epichloë infection reported in other studies were masked by local and seasonal variability in this study’s grassland sites. KW - endophytic fungi KW - symbiosis KW - Lolium perenne KW - land use KW - fungus-plant interaction KW - foliar fungal community KW - Epichloë Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-176814 VL - 6 IS - e4660 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Krauss, Jochen A1 - Vikuk, Veronika A1 - Young, Carolyn A. A1 - Krischke, Markus A1 - Mueller, Martin J. A1 - Baerenfaller, Katja T1 - Epichloë endophyte infection rates and alkaloid content in commercially available grass seed mixtures in Europe JF - Microorganisms N2 - Fungal endophytes of the genus Epichloë live symbiotically in cool season grass species and can produce alkaloids toxic to insects and vertebrates, yet reports of intoxication of grazing animals have been rare in Europe in contrast to overseas. However, due to the beneficial resistance traits observed in Epichloë infected grasses, the inclusion of Epichloë in seed mixtures might become increasingly advantageous. Despite the toxicity of fungal alkaloids, European seed mixtures are rarely tested for Epichloë infection and their infection status is unknown for consumers. In this study, we tested 24 commercially available seed mixtures for their infection rates with Epichloë endophytes and measured the concentrations of the alkaloids ergovaline, lolitrem B, paxilline, and peramine. We detected Epichloë infections in six seed mixtures, and four contained vertebrate and insect toxic alkaloids typical for Epichloë festucae var. lolii infecting Lolium perenne. As Epichloë infected seed mixtures can harm livestock, when infected grasses become dominant in the seeded grasslands, we recommend seed producers to test and communicate Epichloë infection status or avoiding Epichloë infected seed mixtures. KW - Epichloë spp. KW - grass endophytes KW - cool-season grass species KW - infection rates KW - alkaloids KW - toxicity KW - livestock KW - horses KW - Lolium perenne KW - perennial ryegrass Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-203323 SN - 2076-2607 VL - 8 IS - 4 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Vikuk, Veronika A1 - Fuchs, Benjamin A1 - Krischke, Markus A1 - Mueller, Martin J. A1 - Rueb, Selina A1 - Krauss, Jochen T1 - Alkaloid Concentrations of Lolium perenne Infected with Epichloë festucae var. lolii with Different Detection Methods—A Re-Evaluation of Intoxication Risk in Germany? JF - Journal of Fungi N2 - Mycotoxins in agriculturally used plants can cause intoxication in animals and can lead to severe financial losses for farmers. The endophytic fungus Epichloë festucae var. lolii living symbiotically within the cool season grass species Lolium perenne can produce vertebrate and invertebrate toxic alkaloids. Hence, an exact quantitation of alkaloid concentrations is essential to determine intoxication risk for animals. Many studies use different methods to detect alkaloid concentrations, which complicates the comparability. In this study, we showed that alkaloid concentrations of individual plants exceeded toxicity thresholds on real world grasslands in Germany, but not on the population level. Alkaloid concentrations on five German grasslands with high alkaloid levels peaked in summer but were also below toxicity thresholds on population level. Furthermore, we showed that alkaloid concentrations follow the same seasonal trend, regardless of whether plant fresh or dry weight was used, in the field and in a common garden study. However, alkaloid concentrations were around three times higher when detected with dry weight. Finally, we showed that alkaloid concentrations can additionally be biased to different alkaloid detection methods. We highlight that toxicity risks should be analyzed using plant dry weight, but concentration trends of fresh weight are reliable. KW - Epichloë KW - Lolium perenne KW - toxicity KW - grasslands KW - HPLC/UPLC methods KW - endophyte KW - plant fresh/dry weight KW - alkaloid detection methods KW - mycotoxins KW - phenology Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-213171 SN - 2309-608X VL - 6 IS - 3 ER -