These case studies impressively reveal how much work remains to be done in both the laboratory and in the field, to reach the goal of providing sustainable solutions for the economically and ecologically compatible exploitation of fungal endophytes. Other papers included in this special issue focus more on basic research, especially with respect to the ecology of the endophytes

and the elucidation of their life cycle. Vázquez de Aldana [5] and co-workers analysed the endophytic fungi in surveys conducted in 14 grass species CDK inhibitor and found that some of the most frequent taxa on each grass were also present across several host grasses. These taxa (Alternaria, Epicoccum, Cladosporium and Fusarium) produce abundant spores, and are commonly encountered in air samples where their spores, which are important respiratory allergens, attain high atmospheric LBH589 in vitro concentrations. The authors emphasise the potential importance

of this phenomenon, as an important link between climate, plant biology and public health. Unterseher and co-authors [6] have studied the level of seasonal overlap of cultivable microfungi in living and decaying tissues of Fagus sylvatica in Germany using dilution-to-extinction cultivation over 3 years. Based on microscopic identification and sequencing ITS DNA, a substantial compositional and phylogenetic overlap between leaf and litter fungi was revealed. The data from cultivated leaf-inhabiting beech endophytes were compared with a 454 sequence data set from beech phyllosphere, allowing the partition of species lists into active fungal endophytes, fungal “epiphytes” and dormant fungal propagules. Another molecular ecology study by Peršoh [7] investigated factors shaping the endophytic community structure in a hemiparasitic plant, Viscum album ssp. austriacum, and its host Pinus sylvestris, using pyrosequencing of rRNA genes. Fungal operational taxonomic units (154) represented by 953,385 sequences,

were found in at least two samples from Viscum album ssp. austriacum and/or its Pinus sylvestris host. In contrast to an earlier, cultivation based assessment (Peršoh et al. 2010), where predominantly Interleukin-2 receptor xylarialean endophytes had been recovered from the same host-parasite system, the culture-independent approach predominantly yielded zygomycetes of the genus Morteriella. The study also revealed that host and/or organ preferences of putatively saprotrophic fungi are predominantly responsible for compositional differences in the endophytic fungal communities García and co-authors [8] have attempted to establish the “model plant”, Arabidopsis thaliana as model system for an integral approach to studying the principles governing the endophytic lifestyle, taking advantage of the molecular tools and the abundant knowledge accessible from this host plant.