Seedling mortality in arbuscular mycorrhizal systems

Glomeromycota are an ancient lineage of filamentous fungi that have been studied intensively because they associate with plant roots in a symbiosis, the arbuscular mycorrhiza, which may enhance nutrient acquisition. Agricultural practices in the Anthropocene pose unique challenges to glomeromycotan fungi that are currently underappreciated. Anthropogenic activities aiming at reducing crop mortality may have disrupted a mechanism that prevents exploitation of mycorrhizal plants by their fungal partners. By reducing crop mortality, it becomes difficult to control the population growth of glomeromycotan isolates that underdeliver to their plant hosts. Plant mortality could thus impact the way mycorrhizas function, rendering them an underappreciated case of an evolutionary trade-off with major implications for human wellbeing.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  The ISME Journal

• Publication date

  2025-12-23

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1093/ismejo/wraf285PMID 41432250PMCID 12815255
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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