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Summary: Fungal endophytes limit pathogen damage in a
tropical tree
A. Elizabeth Arnold*
, Luis Carlos MejiŽa
, Damond Kyllo
, Enith I. Rojas
, Zuleyka Maynard
, Nancy Robbins
,
and Edward Allen Herre
*Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721; and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 2072,
Balboa, Republic of Panama
Edited by G. David Tilman, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, and approved October 23, 2003 (received for review June 7, 2003)
Every plant species examined to date harbors endophytic fungi
within its asymptomatic aerial tissues, such that endophytes rep-
resent a ubiquitous, yet cryptic, component of terrestrial plant
communities. Fungal endophytes associated with leaves of woody
angiosperms are especially diverse; yet, fundamental aspects of
their interactions with hosts are unknown. In contrast to the
relatively species-poor endophytes that are vertically transmitted
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