Recent advances on endophytic fungi optimising soil environment

Plants encounter a plethora of conditions in the soil that are either deleterious, neutral, or beneficial to plant growth. Endophyic fungi living in plant organs have a symbiotic relationship with their hosts. In the past, many studies focused on the interactions between plants and endophytic fungi. However, in natural environment, the interactions among plant, endophytic fungi and soil are more comprehensive. Although the main living places for endophytic fungi were host tissues, they closely associated with rhizospheric soil. In this review, the effects of endophytic fungi on soil chemical, microbial and physical environment has been evaluated to provide useful information of improving soil environment by fungal physical function during the mycelia growth and biochemical function in the course of fungal metabolism.

Keywords: endophytic fungi, soil environment, symbiosis