Cork Oak Endophytic Fungi as Potential Biocontrol Agents against and .

An increase in cork oak diseases caused by and has been reported in the last decade. Due to the high socio-economic and ecologic importance of this plant species in the Mediterranean Basin, the search for preventive or treatment measures to control these diseases is an urgent need. Fungal endophytes were recovered from cork oak trees with different disease severity levels, using culture-dependent methods. The results showed a higher number of potential pathogens than beneficial fungi such as cork oak endophytes, even in healthy plants. The antagonist potential of a selection of eight cork oak fungal endophytes was tested against and by dual-plate assays. The tested endophytes were more efficient in inhibiting than growth, but sp. and revealed a high potential to inhibit the growth of both. caused macroscopic and microscopic mycelial/hyphal deformations and presented promising results in controlling both phytopathogens' growth in vitro. The evaluation of the antagonistic potential of non-volatile and volatile compounds also revealed that compounds could be further explored for inhibiting both pathogens. These findings provide valuable knowledge that can be further explored in in vivo assays to find a suitable biocontrol agent for these cork oak diseases.