The morphological changes affected by endophytes on induction of cold tolerance in two species of festuca

To analyze the morphological changes affected by endophytes on induction of cold tolerance in two species of festuca, an experiment was done at Isfahan University of Technology in 2002.Endophyte-infected and non-infected clones from two genotypes of tall fescue and one meadow fescue were prepared and numbered 75,83 and 60 respectively. The clone were exposed to cold treatment at 20 C. After three weeks of cold treatments, shoot, root and crown dry weight, number of tillers, cuticle thickness and finally amount of regrowth were measured. The presence of endophytes had significant effect on increasing the dry weight of shoot, root, crown and number of tillers. Endophytic fungi had not significant effect in cuticle thickness. Evaluation of regrowth after termination of stress condition showed that endophytes increase the plant ability to survive and recover from exposure to cold stress environment. Among plant genotypes, 83 was better for most characteristics, specially in the presence of endophyte and showed higher cold tolerance