Adaptation and Survival of Plants in High Stress Habitats via Fungal Endophyte Conferred Stress Tolerance

Abstract

In this chapter, we discuss recent information demonstrating that fungal endo- phytes can adapt to abiotic stress in a habitat-specific manner and confer stress toler- ance to plants. We hypothesize that the intergenomic epigenetic communication responsible for endophyte-conferred stress tolerance allows some plants to make quantum evolutionary leaps necessary for their establishment and survival in high stress habitats.