Miscanthus sinensis was found grown naturally at many old mine sites in Japan, where soil contained high concentrations of heavy metals, showed potential heavy metal (HM) tolerances. Recently, several researches suggested that root endophytes would enhance host plants with HM tolerance ability. The purpose of our research is to elucidate the metal tolerant mechanism of M. sinensis, considering the interaction with root endophytic fungi, Phialocephala sp. and Talaromyces sp. via inoculation test. Phialocephala sp. has been known as DSE, which can enhance HM tolerance in plants and Talaromyces sp. showed siderophore production ability, which can enhance HM detoxification in our previous research.
The sterilized seedlings inoculated with Talaromyces sp. or Phialocephala sp. and sterilized water alone as control were grown under sterile mine HM soil for 40 days. The results clarified that both root endophytes significantly enhanced M. sinensis growth, such as seedlings height, aerial part fresh and dry weight, but not root growth. HM concentrations and chlorogenic acid as an HM detoxicant in seedlings growing under each treatment will be analyzed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and by high-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS), respectively.