Title: Recent advances on endophytic fungi optimising soil environment

Authors: Yan Chen; Chuan-Chao Dai

Addresses: Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Microbes and Functional Genomics, Jiangsu Engineering and Technology Research Center for Industrialization of Microbial Resources, College of Life Science, Nanjing Normal University, Jiangsu Province, 210046, China ' Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Microbes and Functional Genomics, Jiangsu Engineering and Technology Research Center for Industrialization of Microbial Resources, College of Life Science, Nanjing Normal University, Jiangsu Province, 210046, China

Abstract: Plants encounter a plethora of conditions in the soil that are either deleterious, neutral, or beneficial to plant growth. Endophyic fungi living in plant organs have a symbiotic relationship with their hosts. In the past, many studies focused on the interactions between plants and endophytic fungi. However, in natural environment, the interactions among plant, endophytic fungi and soil are more comprehensive. Although the main living places for endophytic fungi were host tissues, they closely associated with rhizospheric soil. In this review, the effects of endophytic fungi on soil chemical, microbial and physical environment has been evaluated to provide useful information of improving soil environment by fungal physical function during the mycelia growth and biochemical function in the course of fungal metabolism.

Keywords: endophytic fungi; soil environment; symbiosis; mycelia growth; biochemical function; fungal metabolism; soil chemistry; microbial environment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEE.2013.056625

International Journal of Environmental Engineering, 2013 Vol.5 No.4, pp.387 - 404

Accepted: 26 Dec 2011
Published online: 31 Oct 2013 *

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