Fungal endophytes of crop plants: diversity, stress tolerance and biocontrol potential

BackgroundThere is a growing perception among the scientific community to utilize endophytes in improving crop productivity. The presence of these microorganisms offers benefits to host plants that include enhanced resistance to various insect pests, increased fitness and improved tolerance to abiotic stresses including heavy metal pollutants and higher salinity, albeit with no harm to the environment.Main bodySince reports indicated that fungal endophytes afford protection to cereal crops from a wide variety of pathogenic microbes, in this short review, the diversity and potential of fungal endophytes of some major crop plants including rice, wheat, maize and sugarcane were discussed.ConclusionConsidering the global challenges caused by food security, there is an immediate need to look at effective and environmental friendly solutions to increase crop productivity and endophytes present a solution due to their long-term symbiotic association with their hosts. However, it remains critical to understand their functional significance and overall role in improving the host fitness in natural environments.