Genomic and Transcriptomic Analysis of Perennial Ryegrass/Epichloë Endophytes Symbiota

The symbiotic association between perennial ryegrass and Epichloe endophytes has been known and studied for decades. The advent of ‘next-generation’ sequencing has enabled the genome sequencing of both the host grass and the fungal endophytes. Genome sequencing of isolated Epichloe fungal endophytes has confirmed the identifies of 4 taxa that colonise perennial ryegrass. Genomic sequencing of strains within taxa have identified a ‘core’ and ‘disposable’ complement of the genomes within taxa. Gene loss has been identified in all taxa, however the degree of gene loss is thought to correlate with how recently the ‘asexualistion’ has occurred within a taxa. Representative strains of all four taxa have been inoculated into breeding germplasm by our commercial partner. This has enabled the transcriptomic analysis of a timecourse of developing symbiota to be undertaken for 3 taxa within the seed of 1 commercial cultivar. This has been achieved through mapping of RNA derived reads to genes from the host grass and the fungal endophytes simultaneously. Results of this analysis covering timepoints from post imbibition to 10 days old seedlings will be presented