Costs of leaf reinforcement in response to winter cold in evergreen species.

The competitive equilibrium between deciduous and evergreen plant species to a large extent depends on the intensity of the reduction in carbon gain undergone by evergreen leaves, associated with the leaf traits that confer resistance to stressful conditions during the unfavourable part of the year. This study explores the effects of winter harshness on the resistance traits of evergreen leaves. Leaf mass per unit area (LMA), leaf thickness and the concentrations of fibre, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), soluble protein, chlorophyll and ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) were determined in three evergreen and two deciduous species along a winter temperature gradient.

Fungal endophyte (Epichloë festucae) alters the nutrient content of Festuca rubra regardless of water availability.

Festuca rubra plants maintain associations with the vertically transmitted fungal endophyte Epichloë festucae. A high prevalence of infected host plants in semiarid grasslands suggests that this association could be mutualistic. We investigated if the Epichloë-endophyte affects the growth and nutrient content of F.

A spectroscopy approach to the study of virus infection in the endophytic fungus Epichloë festucae.

Background: In this work we propose a rapid method based on visible and near-infrared (Vis-NIR) spectroscopy to determine the occurrence of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) viruses in Epichloë festucae strains isolated from Festuca rubra plants. In addition, we examined the incidence of infections by E. festucae in populations of F.

Direct classification of related species of fungal endophytes (Epichloë spp.) using visible and near-infrared spectroscopy and multivariate analysis.

The aim of this work was to investigate the potential of visible and near-infrared (Vis-NIR) reflectance spectroscopy for the classification of three morphologically similar species of fungal endophytes of grasses. Vis-NIR spectra (400-2498 nm) from 34 isolates of Epichloë sylvatica, 32 of Epichloë typhina and 38 of Epichloë festucae were recorded directly from fresh mycelium growing in potato dextrose agar plates. Multivariate procedures applied to the spectral data were discriminant modified partial least squares regression, soft independent modelling of class analogy and discriminant partial least squares regressions (PLS1, PLS2).