The origin and evolution of mycorrhizal symbioses: from palaeomycology to phylogenomics

What is it about?

Plants joined hands with fungi over 400 million years ago to form a lasting partnership that is fundamental to the evolution of life on land. Mycorrhizas are mutually beneficial relationships that typically develop between fungi and plants. Our review considers how three different sources of evidence (i.e. the tree of life, genomes and fossils) are shedding light on the origins and evolution of these relationships. The different approaches are complementary ways of seeing into the past. Collectively, they offer most to developing an understanding of the evolutionary events that gave rise to modern mycorrhizas.

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