Underground fungal highways swap plant sugar for soil nitrogen fast
Brandt L, Abrahão A, Wicht AC, Schulz S, Schloter M
Mycorrhizal Networks
The mycorrhizal fungi threading through your garden soil are actively fetching nitrogen from areas your plant's roots can't reach, trading it for sugar your plant made just days earlier.
Researchers fed grassland plants a special labeled form of carbon dioxide and watched where that carbon traveled underground. Within a single day it showed up inside fungal threads, and within a week it had moved into bacteria living even farther from the roots, while nitrogen flowed the opposite direction back to the plants. It's a real-time picture of the underground barter system that helps plants get fed, with fungi acting as the delivery network and gatekeepers for which bacteria get to join in.
Key Findings
Plant-derived carbon (labeled with 13C) appeared in soil fungi within 1 day and in hyphosphere bacteria within 7 days.
16.9% of a 150 μg dose of labeled nitrogen (15N) supplied to fungal-only soil zones was transferred back into the plants.
Microbial diversity dropped moving from root zones to fungal-hyphae-dominated zones, while fungal-bacterial partnerships became more cooperative (positive associations).
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists tracked how grassland plants trade sugar for nitrogen with fungi and bacteria living in the soil, finding that fungal threads act as express lanes moving carbon out and nitrogen back in within days. This reciprocal underground trading system helps explain how plants get nutrients from soil far beyond their roots.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Reciprocal transport of carbon and nitrogen between plants and the hyphosphere microbiome in a temperate grassland.
Despite its relevance for plant nutrient acquisition, the role of the hyphosphere in structuring fungal-bacterial networks and mediating carbon-nitrogen (C-N) exchange under field conditions remain...
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