Recent advances and issues on the endophyte

Endophyte is a microorganism community with abundant biodiversity. Their existence and effect on the host plant have been ignored for they have been living in the healthy plant tissues without causing any diagnostic and co-evolvement in their hosts. With the study on the endophytic populations broadened and deepened, it has become one of the most popular research topics, because of its ecological and physiological functions and the great application potentiality in the fields of agriculture and medicine as biocontrol agents and outer gene bearer. In this paper, general situation and recent advances on the endophyte study have been summarized with comments on some issues for the last ten years.