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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

fungal endophytes, stressful environments, microbe interactions

College

Life Sciences

Department

Plant and Wildlife Sciences

Abstract

Plant microbe interactions have been shown to enhance plant growth (Nassar, 2005) and it is well established that fungal endophytes affect beneficial phenotypes like resistance to drought or insects (Bacon 1997). Plants have been selected for beneficial phenotypic traits for thousands of years, but selection for beneficial microbe interactions is under studied. We desire to investigate improving crop yield and quality, while minimizing the expenditure of natural resources, by growing maize artificially infected with fungal endophytes from plants adapted to stressful environments. We report our early success here.

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