Dr. Anke Sirrenberg

Effect of P. indica on A. thaliana: a) control with uninoculated medium, b) with living fungus.

The endophytic fungus Piriformospora indica was isolated in the laboratory of Prof. Ajit Varma in 1992 from the rhizsophere of a desert shrub and has been described as a new species in 1998 (Verma et al., 1998). Since then it has proven to enhance the growth of all plants tested until now. The mechanism of this beneficial effect remains enigmatic especially since the fungus causes the death of the plant root host cells (Franken et al., 2000, Demashluk et al., 2006). In a combined bioassay and GS-MS/HPLC-MS experiment we showed that the fungus produces auxin IAA, which appears to participate on the beneficial effect of the fungus on plants (Sirrenberg et al., Physiologia Plantarum, accepted for publication).

You may download Anke's poster on this topic here (334 kb).