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Foraging for Resources in Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi: What is an Obligate Symbiont Searching for and How is it Done?

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Mycorrhiza

This chapter presents first a brief summary of basic concepts about foraging and foraging theory derived from studies in animals and applied later to the search of resources in plants and fungi. Efficiency in the search and acquisition of resources is an important component of fitness in the plant and the fungal partner, and a fundamental contributor for a successful mutualistic symbiosis, but foraging is still a neglected area in mycorrhizal research. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are obligate symbionts that obtain all their carbon from the plant they colonise but have to find other resources through soil exploration. The search is therefore constrained by this carbon dependency and recent discoveries about their growth and physiology have important implications on our understanding of foraging capacities, limits and strategies in these organisms. Also, an overview of the results of some experiments testing hypotheses and models presented in a previous review on foraging activities, resource allocation and responsiveness to enriched patches with different resources is provided. Two models, a two-dimensional and a multidimensional, have been used for those tests and are discussed but the information available is still too scarce to suggest general patterns of foraging in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Finally, there is an evaluation of new directions, promising approaches and methodological developments for further research on this topic.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apartado postal 27-3, Santa María de Guido, C. P. 58090, Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico

    Mayra E. Gavito

  2. Department of Plant Ecology and Systematics, Ecology Building, 223 62, Lund, Sweden

    Pål Axel Olsson

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  1. Mayra E. Gavito
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  2. Pål Axel Olsson
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Correspondence to Mayra E. Gavito .

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  1. Amity Institute of Microbial Technology (AIMT), Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Block ‘A’, Ground Floor, Sector 125, Noida, UP, 201303, India

    Ajit Varma (Director, Vice President (International) (Director, Vice President (International)

  2. Amity Science, Technology & Innovation Foundation (ASTIF), Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Block ‘A’, Ground Floor, Sector 125, Noida, UP, 201303, India

    Ajit Varma (Director, Vice President (International) (Director, Vice President (International)

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Gavito, M.E., Olsson, P.A. (2008). Foraging for Resources in Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi: What is an Obligate Symbiont Searching for and How is it Done?. In: Varma, A. (eds) Mycorrhiza. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-78826-3_4

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