Neotyphodium in Cool-Season Grasses.(Book Review)

Neotyphodium in Cool-Season Grasses. Edited by C.A. ROBERTS, C.P. WEST, and D.E. SPIERS. Blackwell Publishing, 2121 State Avenue, Ames, IA 50014. 2005. Hardcover, 379 pp., $149.99. ISBN 0-8138-0189-3.

Neotyphodium and Epichloe are clavicipitaceous fungi that commonly infect C-3 grasses. The fungi produce alkaloids that can provide the grass host resistance to vertebrates, invertebrates, and pathogens and can also alter abiotic stress tolerance in their host. Endophytes are agronomically important because their hosts include species of Festuca and Lolium, which are widely grown in temperate climates throughout the world for forage and turf. The fungi are important ecologically because they are common symbionts of many grasses and can modify the way grasses interact with their biotic and abiotic environments. …