Detection of viable endophyte

摘要

A method for detecting the presence of viable fungal endophyte in a plant comprises detecting the presence of a fungal endophyte in a young leaf or extract thereof, from the plant, wherein detecting the presence of the fungal endophyte in the young leaf or extract is indicative of the presence of viable fungal endophyte in the plant. The endophyte is detected by a method that identifies the presence of a particular species or strain of endophyte, and at least one primer that hybridizes to a species-specific or strain-specific part of the intergenic region (IGS) of the ribosomal repeat region of a fungal endophyte is used in a PCR-based method to detect the presence of the endophyte.