Diet of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi: Bread and Butter?

Rich MK; Nouri E; Courty PE; Reinhardt D

doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2017.05.008

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Diet of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi: Bread and Butter?

Rich MK Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Route Albert-Gockel 3, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland.
Nouri E Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Route Albert-Gockel 3, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland.
Courty PE Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Route Albert-Gockel 3, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland; Present address: Agroécologie, AgroSupDijon, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 21000 Dijon, France.
Reinhardt D Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Route Albert-Gockel 3, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland. Electronic address: didier.reinhardt@unifr.ch.

2017-06-18

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Trends in plant science. - 2017

English Most plants entertain mutualistic interactions known as arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) with soil fungi (Glomeromycota) which provide them with mineral nutrients in exchange for reduced carbon from the plant. Mycorrhizal roots represent strong carbon sinks in which hexoses are transferred from the plant host to the fungus. However, most of the carbon in AM fungi is stored in the form of lipids. The absence of the type I fatty acid synthase (FAS-I) complex from the AM fungal model species Rhizophagus irregularis suggests that lipids may also have a role in nutrition of the fungal partner. This hypothesis is supported by the concerted induction of host genes involved in lipid metabolism. We explore the possible roles of lipids in the light of recent literature on AM symbiosis.

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