Endophytes for a Growing World

The book brings together papers covering the most recent scientific research from the top endophyte researchers in the world. It presents the state of the art in our knowledge and technical capacity and explores future directions of this work. It is highly relevant and timely because of the need to improve global food security and its sustainability, and also to provide novel bioactive molecules for medicine. There is also a need to protect forestry in a changing and growing world. Endophytes offer a huge potential to reduce environmentally damaging agricultural inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides. They are also a largely overlooked group of organisms where much basic science remains to be undertaken. For example, new molecular tools of DNA profiling using high throughput environmental sequencing are allowing the exploration of a previously largely unknown resource. There is a pressing need to convert scientific research on endophytes into practical application. This book describes how that will be achieved.