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Fungal ecology

A surprising find of far-flung fungi

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 13, page 600 (2015)Cite this article

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80% of land plants have symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, which are named after the 'arbuscule' structures that are used for nutrient exchange. Despite their ecological importance, surveys of these fungi have been limited, as these taxa are mostly unculturable, but have pointed to an endemic dispersal pattern. However, Davison et al. now use high-throughput sequencing of 836 samples from 161 host plant species to show that many arbuscular mycorrhizal taxa are cosmopolitan, with 34% of taxa found in all six sampled continents. Furthermore, 93% and 90% of taxa were found in more than one continent and climatic zone, respectively, suggesting that the level of endemism is far lower than expected. A phylogenetic analysis showed that long-distance dispersal of these fungi is recent; the authors suggest human activities, birds, seawater, wind and dust storms as possible dispersal agents.

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References

  1. Davison, J. et al. Global assessment of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus diversity reveals very low endemism. Science 349, 970–973 (2015)

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  1. Naomi Attar
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Attar, N. A surprising find of far-flung fungi. Nat Rev Microbiol 13, 600 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro3561

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