Mycology, Earth and Life Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, Croix du sud 2, 1348, Louvain‑la‑Neuve, Belgium.
Commun Biol. 2023 Mar 30;6(1):346. doi: 10.1038/s42003-023-04722-4.
Plant adaptation to drought facilitates major ecological transitions, and will likely play a vital role under looming climate change. Mycorrhizas, i.e. strategic associations between plant roots and soil-borne symbiotic fungi, can exert strong influence on the tolerance to drought of extant plants. Here, I show how mycorrhizal strategy and drought adaptation have been shaping one another throughout the course of plant evolution. To characterize the evolutions of both plant characters, I applied a phylogenetic comparative method using data of 1,638 extant species globally distributed. The detected correlated evolution unveiled gains and losses of drought tolerance occurring at faster rates in lineages with ecto- or ericoid mycorrhizas, which were on average about 15 and 300 times faster than in lineages with the arbuscular mycorrhizal and naked root (non-mycorrhizal alone or with facultatively arbuscular mycorrhizal) strategy, respectively. My study suggests that mycorrhizas can play a key facilitator role in the evolutionary processes of plant adaptation to critical changes in water availability across global climates.
植物对干旱的适应促进了主要的生态转变，并可能在迫在眉睫的气候变化下发挥至关重要的作用。菌根，即植物根系与土壤共生真菌之间的战略联系，可以对现存植物的耐旱性产生强烈影响。在这里，我展示了菌根策略和干旱适应是如何在植物进化的过程中相互塑造的。为了描述这两个植物特征的进化，我应用了一种系统发育比较方法，使用了全球分布的 1638 个现存物种的数据。检测到的相关性进化揭示了耐旱性的获得和丧失在具有外生或内生菌根的谱系中以更快的速度发生，与丛枝菌根和裸露根系（非菌根单独或与兼性丛枝菌根）策略的谱系相比，分别快约 15 倍和 300 倍。我的研究表明，菌根可以在植物适应全球气候下水分可利用性的关键变化的进化过程中发挥关键的促进作用。
