Endophytic fungi from grapevine cultivars in Canary Islands and their activity against phytopatogenic fungi

Abstract

In Canary Islands due to the absence of phylloxera, the vine is cultivated directly into the soil without using American vine rootstocks. The variability of endophytic fungi in cultivated plant species may be conditioned by geographical location and farm management.Our aim was to study endophytic fungi from branches of 11 wine varieties cultivated in the same plot, thus influence of geographic location and culture techniques is minimized. We evaluated the antagonistic activity of the isolated endophytes and their extracts against phytopathogenic fungi, including Botrytis cinerea, which causes severe damage to grapes.We found that the diversity of fungal endophytes genera in this plot is similar to that observed in other studies of vineyards. Although the number of different endophytes present in each variety is small, some of the fungal species were isolated from many varieties while others from one variety only, suggesting a specific relation between some endophytes and their hosts. Bionectriaochroleuca, Aureobasidiumpullulans, Chaetomiumspirochaete,Alternaria sp.Acremoniumstrictum and their subsequent extracts showed activity against targeted phytopatogenic fungi in in vitro bioassays.