Community Assembly of Phyllosphere Endophytes: A Closer Look at Fungal Life Cycle Dynamics, Competition, and Phytochemistry in the Shaping of the Fungal Community

It is now generally accepted that all major lineages of land plants host endophytic fungi (Stone et al. 2004). These are broadly de›ned as those fungi that infect internal plant tissues without causing symptoms of disease at the time of isolation (Hyde and Soytong 2008); however, their long-term effects on a plant may vary widely, depending on the particular host, fungal species, and other factors (Stone et  al. 2004; Schulz and Boyle 2005). Our focus here is on endophytes of the phyllosphere: the microbial habitat comprising the aboveground parts of plants.