Transcriptome response of tall fescue and its fungal endophyte in different climate change scenarios. Lolium arundinacium

Four tall fescue (Lolium arundinaceum) clones harboring the common KY31 fungal endophyte, Epichloe coenophiala, (E+), together with the endophyte-free (E-) clones, were grown under different climate change scenarios comprised of increased heat and increased heat with altered precipitation events were compared to the ambient conditions in a field setting. The goal of this work was to characterize how the presence of the fungal endophyte might affect tall fescue resiliency under climate change scenarios comparing gene expression of the E+ with E- clones, and how affected the fungal transcriptome. Sampling of pseudostem tissues was done at the beginning of the growing season during flowering and at the end of the growing season in the fall over two years from three replications of the three treatments and the four E+ and E- clones.

本研究以4株携带常见KY31型真菌内生菌（Epichloe coenophiala，记为E+）的高羊茅（Lolium arundinaceum）克隆株，及其无内生菌（E-）对应克隆株为试验材料，在田间条件下设置3种气候变化情景：增温、增温叠加降水格局改变，并以自然环境条件作为对照开展对比试验。本研究旨在阐明真菌内生菌的存在对气候变化情景下高羊茅抗逆性的调控作用，具体通过对比E+与E-克隆株的基因表达水平，同时解析真菌转录组（transcriptome）的响应特征。采样工作于两年内的三个时间节点完成：分别为生长季初期的开花期，以及秋季的生长季末期；每次采样均采集3种处理组的3次生物学重复样本，以及4组E+与E-克隆株的假茎（pseudostem）组织。