What are mycorrhizal traits?

V Bala Chaudhary; E Penelope Holland; Suw Charman-Anderson; Aidee Guzman; Lukas Bell-Dereske; Tanya E Cheeke; Adriana Corrales; Jessica Duchicela; Cameron Egan; Manju M Gupta; S Emilia Hannula; Rachel Hestrin; Shabana Hoosein; Amit Kumar; Genet Mhretu; Lena Neuenkamp; Pushpa Soti; Yichun Xie; Thorunn Helgason

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2022.04.003

What are mycorrhizal traits?

Trends Ecol Evol. 2022 Jul;37(7):573-581. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2022.04.003. Epub 2022 May 1.

Authors

V Bala Chaudhary¹, E Penelope Holland², Suw Charman-Anderson³, Aidee Guzman⁴, Lukas Bell-Dereske⁵, Tanya E Cheeke⁶, Adriana Corrales⁷, Jessica Duchicela⁸, Cameron Egan⁹, Manju M Gupta¹⁰, S Emilia Hannula¹¹, Rachel Hestrin¹², Shabana Hoosein¹³, Amit Kumar¹⁴, Genet Mhretu¹⁵, Lena Neuenkamp¹⁶, Pushpa Soti¹⁷, Yichun Xie¹⁸, Thorunn Helgason²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental Studies, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA. Electronic address: bala.chaudhary@dartmouth.edu.
² Department of Biology, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, UK.
³ Finding Ada Network, Bournemouth BH12 5AG, UK.
⁴ Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
⁵ Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Vídeňská 1083, 142 20 Prague, Czech Republic.
⁶ School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Richland, WA 99354, USA.
⁷ Centro de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Biotecnología-UR (CIMBIUR), Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá 110151, Colombia.
⁸ Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE, Sangolquí 171103, Ecuador.
⁹ Department of Biology, Okanagan College, 1000 KLO Rd, Kelowna, BC, Canada V1Y 4X8.
¹⁰ Department of Biology, University of Delhi, Sri Aurobindo College, Delhi 110017, India.
¹¹ Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden 2333, The Netherlands.
¹² Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA.
¹³ Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA.
¹⁴ Institute of Ecology, Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany.
¹⁵ Department of Biology, Mekelle University, Mekelle 231, Ethiopia.
¹⁶ University of Bern, Institute of Plant Sciences, Berne 3013, Switzerland; Department of Ecology and Multidisciplinary Institute for Environment Studies 'Ramon Margalef', University of Alicante, Alicante 03009, Spain.
¹⁷ Biology Department, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, TX 78539, USA.
¹⁸ School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR 999077.

PMID: 35504748
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2022.04.003

Abstract

Traits are inherent properties of organisms, but how are they defined for organismal networks such as mycorrhizal symbioses? Mycorrhizal symbioses are complex and diverse belowground symbioses between plants and fungi that have proved challenging to fit into a unified and coherent trait framework. We propose an inclusive mycorrhizal trait framework that classifies traits as morphological, physiological, and phenological features that have functional implications for the symbiosis. We further classify mycorrhizal traits by location - plant, fungus, or the symbiosis - which highlights new questions in trait-based mycorrhizal ecology designed to charge and challenge the scientific community. This new framework is an opportunity for researchers to interrogate their data to identify novel insights and gaps in our understanding of mycorrhizal symbioses.

Keywords: community ecology; ecosystem function; fungal traits; mycorrhizas; plant traits; symbiosis.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Ecology
Mycorrhizae* / physiology
Phenotype
Plants / microbiology
Symbiosis