Abstract
Different arbuscular mycorrhizal (AMF) fungal taxa have a differential effect on the growth of co-existing plant species. This means that in order to fully understand the role of these fungi in plant communities, information is needed on whether the symbiosis is specific. In this chapter, I briefly review the ecological consequences of specificity versus non-specificity in the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis on plant ecology. Both from a theoretical approach, and based on observations, there has been an underlying assumption that no specificity exists in the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis. I consider why these assumptions have been made. Direct evidence for or against specificity in the symbiosis is scant and the reason is mainly due to the difficulty in describing AMF community structure in natural communities (see Clapp et al., Chap. 8, this Vol.). Here, I take an evolutionary, as well as an ecological, approach to look at the evidence that predicts that evolution of specificity in the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis could occur. I then consider alternative hypotheses and evidence that could explain why the evolution of specificity might not occur. These hypotheses are based on the growth habit, reproductive strategies and foraging behaviour of AMF and on new findings concerning AMF genetics.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
An ZQ, Guo BZ, Hendrix JW (1998) Viability of soilborne spores of glomalean mycorrhizal fungi. Soil Biol Biochem 30: 1133–1136
Bever JD, Morton J (1999) Heritable variation and mechanisms of inheritance of spore shape within a population of Scutellospora pellucida,an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus. Am J Bot 86:1209–1216
Bever JD, Morton JB, Antonovics J, Schulz PA (1996) Host-dependent sporulation and species diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in a mown grassland. J Ecol 84:71–82
Carey PD, Fitter AH, Watkinson AR (1992) A field study using the fungicide benomyl to investigate the effect of mycorrhizal fungi on plant fitness. Oecologia 90:550–555
Charlesworth B (1994). Evolution in age-structured populations, 2nd edn. Cambridge Univ Press, Cambridge
Clay K (1988) Clavicipitaceous fungal endophytes of grasses: coevolution and change from parasitism to mutualism. In: Pirozynski KL, Hawksworth DL (eds) Coevolution of fungi with plants and animals. Academic Press, London, pp 79–105
Doebeli M, Knowlton N (1998) The evolution of interspecific mutualisms. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 95: 8676–8680
Edwards SG, Fitter AH, Young JPW (1997) Quantification of an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus, Glomus mosseae, within plant roots by competitive polymerase chain reaction. Mycol Res 101: 1440–1444
Ellenb erg H (1988) Vegetation ecology of central Europe, 4th edn. Cambridge Univ Press, Cambridge
Feldmann F (1998) The strain-inherent variability of arbuscular mycorrhizal effectiveness. II. Effectiveness of single spores. Symbiosis 25: 131–143
Giovannetti M, Azzolini D, Citernesi AS (1999) Anastomosis formation and nuclear and protoplasmic exchange in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Appl Environ Microbiol 65: 5571–5575
Grime JP, Mackey JML, Hillier SH, Read DJ (1987) Floristic diversity in a model system using experimental microcosms. Nature 328: 420–422
Harely JL, Smith SE (1987) Mycorrhizal symbiosis. Academic Press, London
Harper JL (1977) Population biology of plants. Academic Press, London
Helgasson T, Daniell TJ, Husband R, Fitter AH, Young JPW (1998) Ploughing up the wood-wide web? Nature 394: 431–432
Hepper CM, Sen R, Azcon-Aguillar C, Grace C (1988) Variation in certain isozymes amongst different geographical isolates of the vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi Glomus darum, Glomus monosporum and Glomus mosseae. Soil Biol Biochem 20: 51–59
Herre EA, Knowlton N, Mueller UG, Rehner SA (1999) The evolution of mutualisms: exploring the paths between conflict and cooperation. Trends Ecol Evol 14: 49–53
Hijri M, Hosny M, van Tuinen D, Dulieu H (1999) Intraspecific ITS polymorphism in Scutellospora castanea ( Glomales, Zygomycota) is structured within multinucleate spores. Fungal Genet Biol 26: 141–151
Hoeksema JD (1999) Investigating the disparity in host specificity between AM and EM fungi: lessons from theory and better studied systems. Oikos 84: 327–332
Johnson NC, Zak DR, Tilman D, Pfleger FL (1991) Dynamics of vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizae during old field succession. Oecologia 86: 349–358
Johnson NC, Tilman D, Wedin D (1992) Plant and soil controls on mycorrhizal fungal communities. Ecology 73: 2034–2042
Kelly CK, Horning K (1999) Acquisition order and resource value in Cuscuta attenuata. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 96: 13219–13222
Koide RT, Schreiner RP (1992) Regulation of the vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis. Annu Rev Plant Physiol Plant Mol Biol 43: 557–581
Lackie SM, Garriock ML, Peterson RL, Bowley SR (1987) Influence of host plant on the morphology of the vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Glomus versiforme ( Daniels and Trappe) Berch. Symbiosis 3: 147–158
Law R (1985) Evolution in a mutualistic environment. In: Boucher DH (ed) The biology of mutualism: ecology and evolution. Croom Helm, London, pp 147–170
Lloyd-McGilp SA, Chambers SM, Dodd JC, Fitter AH, Walker C, Young JPW (1996) Diversity of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacers within and among isolates of Glomus mosseae and related fungi. New Phytol 133: 103–111
Lu XH, Koide RT (1994) The effects of mycorrhizal infection on components of plant growth and reproduction. New Phytol 128: 211–218
Lynch M, Walsh B (1997) Genetics and analysis of quantitative traits. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts
Margulis L, Fester R (eds) (1991) Symbiosis as a source of evolutionary innovation. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Maynard-Smith J, Szathmary E (1995) The major transitions in evolution. Freeman, San Francisco
Merryweather J, Fitter AH (1998) The arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi of Hyacinthoides non-scripta. I. Diversity of fungal taxa. New Phytol 138: 117–129
Miller RM, Jarstfer AG, Pillai JK (1987) Biomass allocation in an Agropyron smithii-Glomus symbiosis. Am J Bot 74: 114–122
Molina R, Massicotte H, Trappe JM (1992) Specificity phenomena in mycorrhizal symbioses: community-ecological consequences and practical implications. In: Allen MF (ed) Mycorrhizal functioning. Chapman Hall, New York, pp 357–423
Morton JB, Benny GL (1990) Revised classification of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Zygomycetes): a new order, Glomales, two new suborders, Glomineae and Gigasporineae, and two new families, Acaulosporaceae and Gigasporaceae, with an emendation of Glomaceae. Mycotaxon 37: 471–491
Nowak MA, May RM, Sigmund K (1995) The arithmetics of mutual help. Sci Am 272: 50–55
Redecker D, Hijri M, Dulieu H, Sanders IR (1999) Phylogenetic analysis of a dataset of fungal 5.8S rDNA sequences shows that highly divergent copies of Internal Transcribed Spacers reported from Scutellospora castanea are of Ascomycete origin. Fungal Genet Biol 28: 238–244
Remy W, Taylor TN, Hass H, Herp H (1995) Four-hundred-million-year-old vesiculararbuscular mycorrhizae. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 91: 11841–11843
Rosendahl S, Rosendahl C, Sochting U (1990) Distribution of VA mycorrhizal endophytes amongst plants from a Danish grassland community. Agric Ecosyst Environ 29: 329–336
Sackville-Hamilton NR, Schmid B, Harper JL (1987) Life-history concepts and the population biology of clonal organisms. Proc R Soc Lond B 232: 35–57
Sanders IR (1993) Temporal infectivity and specificity of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizas in co-existing grassland species. Oecologia 93: 349–355
Sanders IR (1999) No sex please, we’re fungi. Nature 399: 737–739
Sanders IR, Fitter AH (1992) Evidence for differential responses between host-fungus combinations of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizas from a grassland. Mycol Res 96: 415–419
Sanders IR, Koide RT (1994) Nutrient acquisition and community structure in co-occurring mycotrophic and non-mycotrophic old-field annuals. Funct Ecol 8: 77–84
Sanders IR, Alt M, Groppe K, Boller T, Wiemken A (1995) Identification of ribosomal DNA polymorphisms among and within spores of the Glomales: application to studies on the genetic diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities. New Phytol 130: 419–427
Sanders IR, Clapp JP, Wiemken A (1996) The genetic diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in natural ecosystems–a key to understanding the ecology and functioning of the mycorrhizal symbiosis. New Phytol 133: 123–134
Sanders IR, Streitwolf-Engel R, van der Heijden MGA, Boller T, Wiemken A (1998) Increased allocation to external hyphae of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi under CO, enrichment. Oecologia 117: 496–503
Shumway DL, Koide RT (1994) Reproductive responses to mycorrhizal colonization of Abutilon theophrasti Medic. plants grown for two generations in the field. New Phytol 128: 219–224
Shumway DL, Koide RT (1995) Size and reproductive inequality in mycorrhizal and nonmycorrhizal populations of Abutilon theophrasti. J Ecol 83: 613–620
Simon L, Lalonde M, Bruns TD (1992a) Specific amplification of 18S fungal ribosomal genes from vesicular-arbuscular endomycorrhizal fungi colonizing roots. Appl Environ Microbiol 58: 291–295
Simon L, Lévesque RC, Lalonde M (1992b) Rapid quantitation by PCR of endomycorrhizal fungi colonizing roots. PCR Methods Appl 2: 76–80
Simon L, Bousquet J, Lévesque RC, Lalonde M (1993) Origin and diversification of endomycorrhizal fungi and coincidence with vascular land plants. Nature 363: 67–69
Smith SE, Read DJ (1997) Mycorrhizal symbiosis. Academic Press, London
Stanley MR, Koide RT, Shumway DL (1993) Mycorrhizal symbiosis increases growth, reproduction and recruitment of Abutilon theophrasti Medic. in the field. Oecologia 94: 30–35
Streitwolf-Engel R, Boller T, Wiemken A, Sanders IR (1997) Clonal growth traits of two Prunella species are determined by co-occurring arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi from a calcareous grassland. J Ecol 85: 181–191
Streitwolf-Engel R, van der Heijden MGA, Wiemken A, Sanders IR (2001) The ecological significance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal effects on clonal reproduction in plants. Ecology 82 (10): 2846–2859
Trappe JM (1987) Phylogenetic and ecologic aspects of mycotrophy in the angiosperms from an evolutionary standpoint. In: Safir GR (ed) Ecophysiology of VA mycorrhizal plants. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 5–25
Trouvelot S, van Tuinen D, Hijri M, Gianinazzi-Pearson V (1999). Visualization of ribosomal DNA loci in spore interphasic nuclei of glomalean fungi by fluorescence in situ hybridization. Mycorrhiza 8: 203–206
van der Heijden MGA, Boller T, Wiemken A, Sanders IR (1998a) Different arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal species are potential determinants of plant community structure. Ecology 79: 2082–2091
van der Heijden MGA, Klironomos JN, Ursic M, Moutoglis P, Streitwolf-Engel R, Boller T, Wiemken A, Sanders IR (1998b) Mycorrhizal fungal diversity determines plant diversity, ecosystem variability and productivity. Nature 396: 69–72
van Tuinen D, Jacquot E, Zhao B, Gollotte A, Gianinazzi-Pearson V (1998) Characterisation of root colonisation profiles by a microcosm community of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi using 25S rDNA-targeted nested PCR. Mol Ecol 7: 879–887
Weiner J, Thomas SC (1986) Size variability and competition in plant monocultures. Oikos 47: 211–222
Wilson JM (1984) Competition for infection between vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. New Phytol 97: 427–435
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sanders, I.R. (2002). Specificity in the Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbiosis. In: van der Heijden, M.G.A., Sanders, I.R. (eds) Mycorrhizal Ecology. Ecological Studies, vol 157. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-38364-2_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-38364-2_16
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-00204-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-38364-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive