I am currently working on a project to determine whether symbiotic fungi from epiphytic ferns such as Drynaria quercifolia have potential growth enhancing and stress tolerance mechanisms to their host. My hypothesis is that, since these symbionts live in stressful epiphytic environments, it is possible that they have stress-adaptive mechanisms. I need current related literature to strengthen the results of my project. So, can anybody provide links to related researches relevant to my present project? Thank you in advance!
Dear Jomar,
indeed, plants should have a higher stress tolerance if they are associated with mycorrhizae. In ferns, however, mycorrhizae is rarely obligate and the percentage of mycorrhizae in epiphytic ferns is relatively low.
In addition to the references given by Said, I would recommend you to start with the books of
Varma, A. (ed.) 2008. Mycorrhizae. Springer, Berlin. and
Siddiqui, Z. A. et al. 2008. Mycorrhizae: Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry. Springer.
A classical paper, you should know of is Brundrett, M. C. 2002. Coevolution of roots and mycorrhizas of land plants. New Phytologist 154: 275-304.
Finally, I have written a book chapter (no.7) on interactions of ferns with fungi and animals, which you may find in your library: Mehltreter, K. et al. 2010. Fern Ecology. Cambridge University Press.
http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521728207
Kind regards,
Klaus
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