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MOSCOW, Idaho (AP) - A University of Idaho researcher is hoping to harness the power of tiny fungi to combat an invasive weed that ranchers blame for crowding out nutritious forage for their livestock. George Newcombe is busy inside a greenhouse on the school's Moscow campus working with so-called endophytes that live in spotted knapweed, considered one of the West's most-destructive noxious weeds.
Endophytes are found in many plant species and have recently won additional scientific scrutiny. Newcombe says endophytes survive off the host and are believed to boost the plant's survival in exchange for nutrients they provide.
Now, Newcombe says he appears to have been able to isolate an endophyte that renders knapweed sterile. The fungus typically exists in low concentrations, but when it's cultured in a lab and sprayed in higher concentrations, it has a deadly effect.
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