Person:
Ruiz de los Mozos Aliaga, Igor

Profile Picture

Email Address

Birth Date

Research Projects

Organizational Units

Job Title

Last Name

Ruiz de los Mozos Aliaga

First Name

Igor

person.page.departamento

Producción Agraria

ORCID

person.page.upna

9085

Name

Filters

20141
Reset filters

Settings

Author: Ruiz de los Mozos Aliaga, Igor × Subject: Alkaloid ×

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    PublicationOpen Access
    Non-systemic fungal endophytes in Carex brevicollis may influence the toxicity of the sedge to livestock
    (Instituto Nacional de Investigacion y Tecnologia Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA), 2014) Canals Tresserras, Rosa María; San Emeterio Garciandía, Leticia; Sánchez Márquez, Salud; Ruiz de los Mozos Aliaga, Igor; Pujol, Pablo; Zabalgogeazcoa, Iñigo; Nekazaritza Ekoizpena; Producción Agraria; IdAB. Instituto de Agrobiotecnología / Agrobioteknologiako Institutua
    The sedge Carex brevicollis is a common component of semi-natural grasslands and forests in temperate mountains of Central and Southern Europe. The consumption of this species causes a severe toxicity to livestock, associated to high plant concentrations of the β-carbolic alkaloid brevicolline. This research was started to ascertain the origin of this toxicity. An exploratory survey of alkaloid content in plants growing in contrasting habitats (grasslands/forests) did not contribute to find a pattern of the variable contents of brevicolline in plants, and led us to address other possibilities, such as a potential role of fungal endophytism. Systemic, vertically-transmitted endophytes producers of herbivore-deterrent alkaloids are known to infect many known forage grasses. We did not detect systemic endophytes in C. brevicollis, but the sedge harboured a rich community of non-systemic fungi. To test experimentally whether non-systemic endophytes influenced the synthesis of the alkaloid, 24 plants were submitted to a fungicide treatment to remove the fungal assemblage, and the offspring ramets were analysed for alkaloid content. Brevicolline was the major β-carbolic alkaloid detected, and the contents were at least five times lower in the new ramets that developed from fungicide-treated plants than in the untreated plants. This result, although not conclusive about the primary source of the alkaloid (a plant or a fungal product) indicates that fungal endophytes may affect the contents of the toxic brevicolline in this sedge.