Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) describes the transmission of genetic material across species boundaries and is an important evolutionary phenomenon in the ancestry of many microbes. The role of HGT in plant evolutionary history is, however, largely unexplored. Here, we compare the genomes of six plant species with those of 159 prokaryotic and eukaryotic species and identify 1689 genes that show...

One of the main European agricultural problems is the decline in soil fertility due to the reduction of the natural soil harmony. When natural soil composition is altered, few cultivated plants replace spontaneous populations of numerous species. Man becomes the only regulator of a new fragile equilibrium between the simplified biocenosis elements. Agronomic techniques (fertilisation, irrigatio...

As the diversity of plants increases in an ecosystem, so does resource competition for soil nutrients, a process that mycorrhizal fungi can mediate. The influence of mycorrhizal fungi on plant biodiversity likely depends on the strength of the symbiosis between the plant and fungi, the differential plant growth responses to mycorrhizal inoculation, and the transfer rate of nutrients from the fu...

The nuclear ribosomal DNAwas used to identify the orchid mycorrhizal fungi found in roots of Orchis xbivonae and its parental species Orchis anthropophora and Orchis italica. Polymerase chain reaction products were sequenced and identified using the expanded database. We determined that closely related Tulasnellaceae are mycorrhizal in the three orchid taxa, suggesting that the mycorrhizal part...

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are ubiquitous in the rhizosphere and form symbiotic relationships with most terrestrial plant roots. In this study, four strains of Rhizophagus clarus were cultured and variations in their growth characteristics owing to functional diversity and resultant effects on host plant were investigated. Growth characteristics of the studied R. clarus strains varied s...

Most land plants are able to form symbiotic associations with fungi, and in many cases these associations are necessary for plant and fungal survival. These plant/fungal associations are formed with mycorrhizal (arbuscular mycorrhizal or ectomycorrhizal) or endophytic fungi, fungi from distinct phylogenetic lineages. While it has been shown that mycorrhizal fungi are able to transfer nutrients ...

A number of studies have shown that an association with mycorrhizal fungi can alter the outcome of interactions between plants and their enemies. While the directions of these effects vary, their strength suggests the need for greater attention to multispecies interactions among plant enemies, plants, and mycorrhizal fungi. We recognize that mycorrhizal fungi could effect plant enemies by impro...

Plant-mycorrhizal fungal interactions are ubiquitous in forest ecosystems. While ectomycorrhizal plants and their fungi generally dominate temperate forests, arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis is common in the tropics. In subtropical regions, however, ectomycorrhizal and arbuscular mycorrhizal plants co-occur at comparable abundances in single forests, presumably generating complex community stru...

The goals of our project were to document the diversity and distributions of cultivable fungi associated with decaying Miscanthus and sugarcane plants in nature and to further assess biodegradation of host plant cell walls by these fungi in pure cultures. Late in 2008 and early in 2009 we collected decaying Miscanthus and Saccharum from 8 sites in Illinois and 11 sites in Louisiana, respectivel...

1. While both arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and plant and insect genotype are well known to influence plant and herbivore growth and performance, information is lacking on how these factors jointly influence the relationship between plants and their natural herbivores. 2. The aim of the present study was to investigate how a natural community of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi affects the grow...