Mycorrhizas shape the evolution of plant adaptation to drought

Abstract

SummaryPlant adaptation to drought facilitates major ecological transitions, and is likely to play a vital role under looming climate change. Mycorrhizas can influence the physiological capacity of plants to tolerate drought. Here, I show how mycorrhizal strategy and drought adaptation shape 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 an ecto- or ericoid mycorrhizal strategy, which were on average about 15 and 300 times quicker than that in lineages with the arbuscular mycorrhizal and naked root (non-mycorrhiza or facultatively arbuscular mycorrhiza) strategy, respectively. Among mycorrhiza shifts, the arbuscular mycorrhiza losses in drought sensitive lineages were more frequent than any symbiont switching or other mutualism breakdown.My study suggests that mycorrhizas play a key facilitator role in the evolutionary process of plant adaptation to critical changes in water availability across global climates.

A tripartite bacterial-fungal-plant symbiosis in the mycorrhiza-shaped microbiome drives plant growth and mycorrhization

“…The evolution of the mycorrhizal symbiosis is thought to have been an essential step that enabled the development of land plants 400 million years ago [1]. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi live in symbiosis with 80% of terrestrial plants [2] and help plants to access distant water and nutrient sources [3][4][5][6][7][8][9], facilitating plant adaptation to environmental change [10]. AM extraradical hyphae extend from plant roots and enlarge the host plant's area of nutrient uptake.…”

The plant root economics space in relation to nutrient limitation in Eurasian herbaceous plant communities

“…Water could potentially shape variation in belowground strategies. For example, plants' associations with mycorrhiza strongly enhance their tolerance to droughts (Augé, 2001) and this relationship has shaped evolutionary processes in plants' adaptations to water availability (Cosme, 2023). Since our study was located in temperate climate regions and groundwater tables within almost all sites were within 1 m below ground level (95%, see Table S3), we do not assume that limited water availability may have confounded our results.…”

Joint evolution of mutualistic interactions, pollination, seed dispersal mutualism, and mycorrhizal symbiosis in trees

“…The transition from AM trees to EcM trees reflect an adaptation to diverse ecological niches and environmental conditions (Tedersoo & Brundrett, 2017; Cosme, 2023). This evolutionary shift is linked to plant nutrient acquisition strategies through the specific type of mycorrhizal association.…”