Breaking the mould? | Nature Reviews Microbiology

Access through your institution Buy or subscribe All plants examined to date have been shown to harbour at least one endophytic fungal species. Endophytes from the genera _Neotyphodium_ and

_Epichloë_ form stable symbioses with grasses and are transmitted in grass seeds. The paradigmatic view of fungal growth is that vegetative hyphae grow only through division and expansion at

the hyphal tip. However, this model cannot adequately explain how endophytes within the shoot apical meristem are able to invade actively growing leaves. Michael Christensen and colleagues

began investigating this conundrum by closely examining the hyphal growth of _Epichloë festucae_ in rye grass. The growth measurements demonstrated that, over time, there was an increase in

the intercalary hyphal length (that is, growth occurred along the entire length of the hypha) in growing but not mature leaves. This increase matched the increase in leaf length during the

same time period. The authors were able to rule out the possibility that this growth occurred through the expansion of short pre-formed hyphal compartments, and so they suspected that they

were observing a new phenomenon — intercalary hyphal growth. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access through your institution Subscribe

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customer support ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER * Christensen, M. J. et al. _Epichloë_ endophytes grow by intercalary hyphal extension in elongating grass leaves. _Fungal Genet. Biol._ 45, 84–93

(2008) Article  PubMed  Google Scholar  Download references Authors * Sheilagh Molloy View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS AND

PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Molloy, S. Breaking the mould?. _Nat Rev Microbiol_ 6, 331 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1904 Download

citation * Issue Date: May 2008 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1904 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable link

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