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The Influence Of Tall Fescue Cultivar And Endophyte Status On Root Exudate Chemistry And Rhizosphere Processes, Jingqi Guo

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

Tall fescue (Lolium arundinaceum (Schreb.) Darbysh.) is a cool-season perennial grass used in pastures throughout the Southeastern United States. The grass can harbor a fungal endophyte (Epichloë coenophiala) thought to provide the plant with enhanced resistance to biotic and abiotic stress. However, the alkaloids produced by the common variety of the endophyte cause severe animal health issues resulting in a considerable amount of research focused on eliminating the toxic class of alkaloids while retaining the positive abiotic and biotic stress tolerance attributes of the other alkaloids. In doing so, very little attention has been paid to the …