Higher-Level Taxonomy & Evolution Codexery

Mycorrhiza

Symbiotic association between a fungus and a plant root.

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The plant supplies the fungus with sugars or lipids, while the fungus supplies the plant with water and mineral nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen from the soil.[1] A symbiotic relationship between a fungus and a plant, termed a mycorrhiza, involves the interconnection of fungal hyphae and plant roots at the cellular level.[2] Within a mycorrhizal association, the host plant's root tissues are colonized by the fungus, which can occur inside cells (intracellularly) or between cells (extracellularly), and this relationship is typically mutualistic.[3]

Quick Facts

First formal description
1885 by A.B. Frank
Earliest fossil evidence
407 million years ago (Rhynie chert)
Estimated emergence
450-500 million years ago
Most common type
arbuscular mycorrhizae (present in 70% of plant species)
First sequenced ectomycorrhizal fungus
Laccaria bicolor (2008)

Facts from the source article.

Key facts and history

German botanist A.B. Frank first formally described and named mycorrhizal fungi in 1885, coining the term "mycorrhiza"[4] Noël Bernard's 1899 research showed that for seed germination, orchids such as Neottia nidus-avis depend on a particular fungus.[5] Mycorrhizae are indicated by fossil and genetic evidence to have first appeared between 450 and 500 million years ago.[6] The Rhynie chert, which is 407 million years old, contains the oldest direct fossil evidence of mycorrhizal symbiosis.[7]

The earliest mycorrhizal relationships to appear were arbuscular ones, which emerged at the same time as plants were moving onto land.[6] Ectomycorrhizae evolved later, with their development occurring during the Jurassic period, though the earliest fossil evidence of them is from the Eocene, 48.7 million years ago.[8] In 2008, the genome of Laccaria bicolor was sequenced, making it the first ectomycorrhizal fungus to have its genome sequenced.[9] Seventy percent of plant species, including numerous crops like cereals and legumes, have the arbuscular type of mycorrhiza.[10]

What the research sources say

The American plant pathologist Stephen Wilhelm stated that in agricultural field conditions, plants do not strictly have roots, they have mycorrhizas.[11] Research from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis shows that ecosystems encompassing mycorrhizal vegetation store on the order of 350 gigatons of carbon globally.[12] The same study notes that human activities have altered 50-75% of Earth's terrestrial ecosystems, transforming natural areas with strong carbon sequestering mycorrhizal associations.[12] According to the account by Deacon, arbuscular mycorrhizas occur on most wild and crop plants and play a key part in the uptake of mineral nutrients.[11]

Deacon's work further describes that ectomycorrhizas are typical of many trees in cooler regions, for instance pines, spruces, firs, oaks, and birches in the Northern Hemisphere, as well as eucalypts in Australia.[11]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Mycorrhiza" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Mycorrhizal Fungi - Oklahoma State University", extension.okstate.edu, 2017-04-01 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Mycorrhiza" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Deacon, "The Microbial World: Mycorrhizas", bio.ed.ac.uk (archived); Kirk, "Ainsworth and Bisby's Dictionary of the Fungi", CAB International, 2001; Read, "Mycorrhiza: Structure, Function, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology", Springer Science & Business Media, 2013, p. 3–5; Brundrett, "Diversity and classification of mycorrhizal associations", Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 2004, p. 473–95; Balestrini, "Cell wall remodeling in mycorrhizal symbiosis: a way towards biotrophism", Frontiers in Plant Science, 2014, p. en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Mycorrhiza" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Arbuscular Mycorrhizas and Stress Tolerance of Plants", Springer Singapore, 2017, p. 1 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Mycorrhiza" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Frank, "Über die auf Wurzelsymbiose beruhende Ernährung gewisser Bäume durch unterirdische Pilze", Berichte der Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft, 1885, p. 128–145; Frank, "On the nutritional dependence of certain trees on root symbiosis with belowground fungi (an English translation of A.B. Frank's classic paper of 1885)", Mycorrhiza, 1 June 2005, p. 267–275 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Mycorrhiza" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kamieński, "Les organes végétatifs de Monotropa hypopitys L.".", Mémoires de la Société nat. Des Sciences naturelles et mathém. De Cherbourg, 1882; Bonfante, "The future has roots in the past: the ideas and scientists that shaped mycorrhizal research", New Phytologist, December 2018, p. 982–995 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Mycorrhiza" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cairney, "Evolution of Mycorrhiza Systems", Naturwissenschaften, December 2000, p. 467–475; Harris, "Divergent evolutionary trajectories of bryophytes and tracheophytes from a complex common ancestor of land plants", Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2022-09-29, p. 1634–1643; Puginier, "Plant–microbe interactions that have impacted plant terrestrializations", Plant Physiology, 2022-08-29, p. 72–84; Cairney, "Evolution of Mycorrhiza Systems", Naturwissenschaften, December 2000, p. 467–475 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Mycorrhiza" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Remy, "Four hundred-million-year-old vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizae.", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 6 December 1994, p. 11841–11843 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Mycorrhiza" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Miyauchi, "Large-scale genome sequencing of mycorrhizal fungi provides insights into the early evolution of symbiotic traits", Nature Communications, 2020, p. 5125; Strullu-Derrien, "The Origin and Evolution of Mycorrhizal Symbioses: from Paleomycology to Phylogenomics", New Phytologist, 14 January 2018, p. 1020; Strullu-Derrien, "The Origin and Evolution of Mycorrhizal Symbioses: from Paleomycology to Phylogenomics", New Phytologist, 14 January 2018, p. 1020 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Mycorrhiza" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Martin, "The genome of Laccaria bicolor provides insights into mycorrhizal symbiosis", Nature, March 2008, p. 88–92 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Mycorrhiza" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Fortin, "Les Mycorhizes", Inra, 2015, p. 10 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Deacon, "The Microbial World: Mycorrhizas", bio.ed.ac.uk (archived). facts only, no text reused. archive.bio.ed.ac.uk
  12. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, "Plants and fungi together could slow climate change", phys.org -us, 2019-11-07. facts only, no text reused. phys.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Mycorrhiza (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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