Divergence of Funneliformis mosseae populations over 20 years of laboratory cultivation, as revealed by vegetative incompatibility and molecular analysis.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are widespread, important plant symbionts. They absorb and translocate mineral nutrients from the soil to host plants through an extensive extraradical mycelium, consisting of indefinitely large networks of nonseptate, multinucleated hyphae which may be interconnected by hyphal fusions (anastomoses). This work investigated whether different lineages of the same isolate may lose the ability to establish successful anastomoses, becoming vegetatively incompatible, when grown separately.

Genetic and phenotypic diversity of geographically different isolates of Glomus mosseae.

In this work, we combined morphological taxonomy and molecular methods to investigate the intraspecific diversity of Glomus mosseae, whose global distribution has been reviewed by a survey of scientific literature and Web-available records from international germplasm collections (International Culture Collection of Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi and International Bank of Glomeromycota). We surveyed 186 publications reporting the occurrence of G. mosseae from at least 474 different sites from 55 countries throughout all continents, producing a geographical map of their distribution.

At the root of the wood wide web: self recognition and non-self incompatibility in mycorrhizal networks.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are mutualistic symbionts living in the roots of 80% of land plant species, and developing extensive, below-ground extraradical hyphae fundamental for the uptake of soil nutrients and their transfer to host plants. Since AM fungi have a wide host range, they are able to colonize and interconnect contiguous plants by means of hyphae extending from one root system to another. Such hyphae may fuse due to the widespread occurrence of anastomoses, whose formation depends on a highly regulated mechanism of self recognition.

Patterns of below-ground plant interconnections established by means of arbuscular mycorrhizal networks.

•  The ability of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) networks originating from plants of different species, genera and families to become interconnected by means of hyphal anastomoses was assessed. •  An in vivo two-dimensional experimental model system was used to reveal the occurrence of linkages between contiguous mycorrhizal networks spreading from Allium porrum root systems and those originating from Daucus carota, Gossypium hirsutum, Lactuca sativa, Solanum melongena, colonized by Glomus mosseae. •  Percentages of hyphal contacts leading to anastomosis between extraradical networks originating from different plant species ranged from 44% in the pairing A.

Genetic diversity of isolates of Glomus mosseae from different geographic areas detected by vegetative compatibility testing and biochemical and molecular analysis.

We detected, for the first time, the occurrence of vegetative incompatibility between different isolates of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal species Glomus mosseae. Vegetative compatibility tests performed on germlings belonging to the same isolate showed that six geographically different isolates were capable of self-anastomosing, and that the percentage of hyphal contacts leading to fusions ranged from 60 to 85%. Successful anastomoses were characterized by complete fusion of hyphal walls, protoplasm continuity and occurrence of nuclei in the middle of hyphal bridges.