Temporal tracking of quantum-dot apatite across in vitro mycorrhizal networks shows how host demand can influence fungal nutrient transfer strategies
Open Access
- 28 September 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in The ISME Journal
- Vol. 15 (2), 435-449
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-020-00786-w
Abstract
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi function as conduits for underground nutrient transport. While the fungal partner is dependent on the plant host for its carbon (C) needs, the amount of nutrients that the fungus allocates to hosts can vary with context. Because fungal allocation patterns to hosts can change over time, they have historically been difficult to quantify accurately. We developed a technique to tag rock phosphorus (P) apatite with fluorescent quantum-dot (QD) nanoparticles of three different colors, allowing us to study nutrient transfer in an in vitro fungal network formed between two host roots of different ages and different P demands over a 3-week period. Using confocal microscopy and raster image correlation spectroscopy, we could distinguish between P transfer from the hyphae to the roots and P retention in the hyphae. By tracking QD-apatite from its point of origin, we found that the P demands of the younger root influenced both: (1) how the fungus distributed nutrients among different root hosts and (2) the storage patterns in the fungus itself. Our work highlights that fungal trade strategies are highly dynamic over time to local conditions, and stresses the need for precise measurements of symbiotic nutrient transfer across both space and time.Keywords
Funding Information
- HSFP grant
- HSFP grant
This publication has 89 references indexed in Scilit:
- Clathrin- and Arp2/3-Independent Endocytosis in the Fungal Pathogen Candida albicansmBio, 2013
- The interplay between P uptake pathways in mycorrhizal peas: a combined physiological and gene‐silencing approachPhysiologia Plantarum, 2013
- Carbon availability triggers fungal nitrogen uptake and transport in arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosisProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2012
- Raster image correlation spectroscopy in live cellsNature Protocols, 2010
- Shifting carbon flow from roots into associated microbial communities in response to elevated atmospheric CO 2Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2010
- Resource limitation is a driver of local adaptation in mycorrhizal symbiosesProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2010
- Phosphate in the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis: transport properties and regulatory rolesPlant, Cell & Environment, 2006
- Variable responses of old-field perennials to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and phosphorus sourceOecologia, 2005
- Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi as support systems for seedling establishment in grasslandEcology Letters, 2004
- Mechanism of Calcium and Phosphate Release from Hydroxy‐Apatite by Mycorrhizal HyphaeSoil Science Society of America Journal, 2000