SHIFTING SYMBIOTIC SCENARIOS AT THE DAWN OF LAND PLANT-FUNGUS ASSOCIATIONS
Lead Research Organisation:
Imperial College London
Department Name: Life Sciences
Abstract
See joint application R223770X
Planned Impact
See joint application R223770X
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Martin Bidartondo (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Hoysted GA
(2021)
Phenology and function in lycopod-Mucoromycotina symbiosis.
in The New phytologist
Hoysted GA
(2018)
A mycorrhizal revolution.
in Current opinion in plant biology
Hoysted GA
(2019)
Mucoromycotina Fine Root Endophyte Fungi Form Nutritional Mutualisms with Vascular Plants.
in Plant physiology
Kowal J
(2020)
Prevalence and phenology of fine root endophyte colonization across populations of Lycopodiella inundata.
in Mycorrhiza
Kowal J
(2018)
From rhizoids to roots? Experimental evidence of mutualism between liverworts and ascomycete fungi.
in Annals of botany
Kowal J
(2022)
Atmospheric pollution, soil nutrients and climate effects on Mucoromycota arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.
in Environmental microbiology
Merckx V
(2017)
The biogeographical history of the interaction between mycoheterotrophic Thismia (Thismiaceae) plants and mycorrhizal Rhizophagus (Glomeraceae) fungi
in Journal of Biogeography
| Description | We discovered an ancient and globally widespread beneficial association between plants and fungi, and investigated its properties using experiments. We discovered that it is distinct ecologically and evolutionarily from other known plant-fungal symbioses. |
| Exploitation Route | Our findings are allowing other scientists to identify this neglected but important association in new systems, including agricultural crops (DOI: 10.1111/nph.14268) and fossils (DOI: 10.1002/9781118951446.ch1). |
| Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Education Environment |
| Title | Fungal symbiont diversity drives growth of Holcus lanatus depending on soil nutrient availability |
| Description | Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi frequently colonise plant roots and can affect plant morphology and physiology through their contribution to plant nutrition. However, the functional role of AM fungi in the presence of other microbial symbionts, including widespread Mucoromycotina 'fine root endophytes' (MFRE) fungi, remains largely unknown. While both AM fungi and MFRE transfer nutrients, including nitrogen, from inorganic and organic sources to host plants, their combined effects on co-colonised plants have only been investigated in liverworts. Here, we compare the morphology and physiology of the grass Holcus lanatus grown with an AM fungal community versus a more diverse symbiotic fungal community containing both AM fungi and MFRE. Holcus lanatus plants were grown in the presence of either a diverse MFRE+AM fungi soil inoculum or a multi-species AM fungal inoculum. Plant traits associated with growth were quantified, along with fungal transfer of 15N tracer to plants from a variety of sources (ammonium chloride, alanine, glycine, algal necromass). Holcus lanatus grown with the AM fungal community had greater root and shoot growth during early development and prior to the addition of 15N-labelled sources, compared to plants grown with the more diverse symbiotic fungal community. When nitrogen sources were made available to the fungal symbionts in the pot microcosms, plants growing with the MFRE+AM fungi soil inoculum had a faster growth rate than plants growing with the AM fungal community. At harvest, H. lanatus grown with the AM fungal community had a larger biomass and there were no differences in 15N tracer assimilation in plants across the two fungal community treatments. Our results demonstrate that the diversity of fungal inocula in conjunction with soil nutrient availability determines the benefits derived by plants from diverse fungal symbionts. Our research contributes to understanding host plant outcomes in diverse multi-symbiont scenarios. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.pc866t1ww |