How mycorrhizal types control biodiversity effects on productivity

Mycorrhizal symbiosis helps plants expand their root surface area, giving plants greater access to nutrients and water. Although the first and foremost role of mycorrhizal symbiosis is to facilitate plant nutrition, how mycorrhizal ...

How do water mold spores swim?

Oomycetes, also known as water molds, are pathogenic microorganisms that resemble fungi and are responsible for a group of diseases affecting several plant species. To reach and infect plants, the zoospores—i.e., self-propelled ...

Computationally classifying fungal lifestyles

As a proof of concept, researchers developed an algorithm that "taught" a computer how to classify 101 representative genomes of Dothideomycetes, the largest class of fungi, by lifestyles. The machine "learned" to identify ...

Deciphering the sugar code

Like animals and humans, plants possess a kind of immune system. It can e.g. recognize pathogenic fungi by the chitin in their cell walls, triggering disease resistance. Some fungi hide from the immune system by modifying ...

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