Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Viale P.A. Mattioli 25, 10125, Turin, Italy.
Proc Biol Sci. 2013 Mar 27;280(1759):20130207. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2013.0207. Print 2013 May 22.
Hornworts are considered the sister group to vascular plants, but their fungal associations remain largely unexplored. The ancestral symbiotic condition for all plants is, nonetheless, widely assumed to be arbuscular mycorrhizal with Glomeromycota fungi. Owing to a recent report of other fungi in some non-vascular plants, here we investigate the fungi associated with diverse hornworts worldwide, using electron microscopy and molecular phylogenetics. We found that both Glomeromycota and Mucoromycotina fungi can form symbioses with most hornworts, often simultaneously. This discovery indicates that ancient terrestrial plants relied on a wider and more versatile symbiotic repertoire than previously thought, and it highlights the so far unappreciated ecological and evolutionary role of Mucoromycotina fungi.
角苔被认为是与维管植物亲缘关系最近的类群，但它们与真菌的共生关系在很大程度上仍未被探索。所有植物的祖先共生条件被广泛认为是与Glomeromycota 真菌形成的丛枝菌根共生关系。由于最近有报道称一些非维管植物中存在其他真菌，因此，我们使用电子显微镜和分子系统发育学来研究与世界各地不同角苔相关的真菌。我们发现，Glomeromycota 和 Mucoromycotina 真菌都可以与大多数角苔形成共生关系，而且通常是同时形成的。这一发现表明，与先前的认识相比，古老的陆生植物依赖于更广泛和更多样化的共生组合，同时也突出了 Mucoromycotina 真菌迄今为止尚未被重视的生态和进化作用。
