Evolution of lipid transfer from plants to fungi allowed colonize land

Plants, insects, and fungi have successfully colonized almost all terrestrial ecosystems, their interactions been the subject of numerous studies in recent decades. Plant-associated include endophytic, arbuscular mycorrhizal, ambrosia, saprotrophic, pathogenic, floral fungi. These interact with insects through various mechanisms, including modification plant nutritional quality degradation defe...

The arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is the association between fungi of the order Glomales (Zygomycetes) and the roots of terrestrial plants (Harley and Smith, 1983). Conservative estimates suggest that this ancient symbiosis, dating back to the early Devonian age (398 million years ago), affects approximately 90% of the Earth’s land plant species (Remy et al., 1994). This symbiosis is in...

The arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is the association between fungi of the order Glomales (Zygomycetes) and the roots of terrestrial plants (Harley and Smith, 1983). Conservative estimates suggest that this ancient symbiosis, dating back to the early Devonian age (398 million years ago), affects approximately 90% of the Earth’s land plant species (Remy et al., 1994). This symbiosis is in...

Fungi play a major role in the global carbon cycle because of their ability to utilize plant biomass (polysaccharides, proteins, and lignin) as carbon source. Due to the complexity and heterogenic composition of plant biomass, fungi need to produce a broad range of degrading enzymes, matching the composition of (part of) the prevalent substrate. This process is dependent on a network of regulat...

Histidine kinases (HKs) are among the most prominent sensing proteins studied in the kingdom Fungi. Their distribution and biological functions in early diverging fungi (EDF), however, remain elusive. We have taken advantage of recent genomic resources to elucidate whether relationships between the occurrence of specific HKs in some EDF and their respective habitat/lifestyle could be establishe...

The occurrence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) was assessed by both morphological and molecular criteria in two salt marshes: (i) a NaCl site of the island Terschelling, Atlantic Coast, the Netherlands and (ii) a K(2)CO(3) marsh at Schreyahn, Northern Germany. The overall biodiversity of AMF, based on sequence analysis, was comparably low in roots at both sites. However, the morphological...

Secondary plant compounds are important signals in several symbiotic and pathogenic plant-microbe interactions. The present review is limited to two groups of secondary plant compounds, flavonoids and strigolactones, which have been reported in root exudates. Data on flavonoids as signaling compounds are available from several symbiotic and pathogenic plant-microbe interactions, whereas only re...