Identification of the fungal endophyte of Ammophila breviligulata (American beachgrass) as Epichloë amarillans

Ian Drake; James F White Jr; Faith C Belanger

doi:10.7717/peerj.4300

Identification of the fungal endophyte of Ammophila breviligulata (American beachgrass) as Epichloë amarillans

PeerJ. 2018 Jan 22:6:e4300. doi: 10.7717/peerj.4300. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Ian Drake¹, James F White Jr², Faith C Belanger²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biology, William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ, United States of America.
² Department of Plant Biology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, United States of America.

Abstract

The grass Ammophila breviligulata (American beachgrass) is known to host an endophyte of the genus Epichloë. Based on morphological characteristics it was originally identified as Acremonium typhinum var. ammophilae and is currently designated as Epichloë typhina var. ammophilae. However, the Epichloë species has not previously been identified based on DNA sequence data. Based on phylogenetic placement of beta-tubulin and translation elongation factor 1-alpha DNA sequences the endophyte is identified as a member of E. amarillans rather than E. typhina.

Keywords: Ammophila; Epichloë; Phylogeny.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Rutgers Center for Turfgrass Science and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Hatch project accession number 1007068 through the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, Hatch project NJ12140. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.