Mutualistic mycorrhiza-like symbiosis in the most ancient group of land plants

Claire P. Humphreys, Peter J. Franks, Mark Rees, Martin I. Bidartondo, Jonathan R. Leake and David J. Beerling ()
Additional contact information
Claire P. Humphreys: University of Sheffield
Peter J. Franks: University of Sheffield
Mark Rees: University of Sheffield
Martin I. Bidartondo: Imperial College London, and Royal Botanic Gardens
Jonathan R. Leake: University of Sheffield
David J. Beerling: University of Sheffield

Nature Communications, 2010, vol. 1, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Over 35 years ago, it was hypothesized that mutualistic symbiotic soil fungi assisted land plants in their initial colonization of terrestrial environments. This important idea has become increasingly established with palaeobotanical and molecular investigations dating the interactions between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and land plants to at least 400 Ma, but the functioning of analogous partnerships in 'lower' land plants remains unknown. In this study, we show with multifactorial experiments that colonization of a complex thalloid liverwort, a member of the most ancient extant clade of land plants, with AMF significantly promotes photosynthetic carbon uptake, growth and asexual reproduction. Plant fitness increased through fungal-enhanced acquisition of phosphorus and nitrogen from soil, with each plant supporting 100–400 m of AMF mycelia. A simulated CO2-rich atmosphere, similar to that of the Palaeozoic when land plants originated, significantly amplified the net benefits of AMF and likely selection pressures for establishment of the symbiosis. Our analyses provide essential missing functional evidence supporting AMF symbionts as drivers of plant terrestrialization in early Palaeozoic land ecosystems.

Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1105 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:1:y:2010:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms1105

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1105

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().