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  -