Plants and their fungal partners didn't evolve together after all
Bodin F, Morlon H, Perez-Lamarque B
Mycorrhizal Networks
The mushrooms and root fungi quietly feeding your garden's trees and vegetables pair up based on matching traits rather than deep evolutionary partnerships, which reshapes how scientists think about introducing or restoring these relationships in disturbed soil.
Most plants team up with underground fungi that help them absorb water and nutrients, and scientists long assumed these partners evolved together over millions of years like a matched set. By studying 29 different plant-fungus networks, researchers found that related plants do tend to team up with related fungi, but their family trees don't actually line up in time. That means the partnerships form because certain plants and fungi have compatible traits, not because they've been evolving side by side.
Key Findings
Analyzed 29 diverse mycorrhizal networks using cophylogenetic methods to test for codiversification
Found significant cophylogenetic signal (closely related plants pair with closely related fungi) but no phylogenetic congruence (matching divergence times)
Results support trait matching between conserved plant and fungal traits as the driver of partnerships, not shared evolutionary history
chevron_right Technical Summary
A large study of plant-fungus partnerships finds that mycorrhizal fungi and their plant hosts have not actually evolved together in lockstep, as long believed. Instead, related plants tend to pair with related fungi because they share compatible traits, not because they share an evolutionary history.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Questioning the Evidence for Host-Symbiont Codiversification in Mycorrhizal Symbioses.
The vast majority of plants form mycorrhizal symbioses. The ecological importance of these mutualistic interactions has sparked interest in their long evolutionary history. By examining interaction...
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