Unraveling the diversity of Stem-inhabiting fungal endophytes in cultivated wheat and its wild ancestors. fungal endophytes of wheat

The main objective of this study is to assess the diversity and composition of fungal communities inhabiting the stems of wild and cultivated wheat species. In addition to cataloging the fungal endophytes, main goals of this project are to test the following hypotheses; (1) Does the fungal community diversity abundance and composition reflects upon the phylogeny of their host plants, (2) Host genotype predominates over the geographic distance in shaping the fungal endophytic communities.