Mycelial fusion can favour fungal strains that exploit each other, but the mechanism is not well understood. Here, Grum-Grzhimaylo et al. show that different cheater lineages share similar deficiencies in initiating fusion that nevertheless enable them to preferentially obtain the benefits of fusion initiated by wild-type mycelia.
- Alexey A. Grum-Grzhimaylo
- Eric Bastiaans
- Duur K. Aanen