Leaf-dwelling fungi enhance black poplar chemical defenses and mediate multi-trophic insect interactions

In a new study published in Ecology Letters, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and the University of Kiel, Germany, report on the influence of an endophytic fungus of the genus Cladosporium on the defense of black poplars against herbivorous insects. The fungus, which lives inside the leaves, not only increases the production of defensive substances in the trees, but also produces an alkaloid itself that protects the trees from feeding damage.