Natures wonders: Dangerous fungus helps plants (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, March 21, 2016, 18:08 (3167 days ago) @ David Turell

Plants use fungus around their roots to get needed nutrients, even if the fungus can be dangerous:-https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160321110454.htm-" For a long time, it was thought that the sole role of the immune system was to distinguish between friend and foe and to fend off pathogens. In fact, it is more like a microbial management system that is also involved in accommodating beneficial microorganisms in the plant when required. -"...laboratories discovered this relationship between the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, or thale cress, and the fungus Colletotrichum tofieldiae. The plant tolerates the fungus when it needs help in obtaining soluble phosphate from the soil and rejects the microbe if it can accomplish this task on its own.-"Plants grow and thrive only if they have access to soluble phosphate in the soil. They are unable to utilize bound phosphate without help from other organisms. Most plants therefore maintain a mycorrhiza -- a fungal mesh around their roots -- that supplies them with vital soil-derived nutrients in exchange for carbohydrates, which they produce by photosynthesis.-"Arabidopsis is one of the few plants that do not have a mycorrhiza. Instead, this species engages in a beneficial relationship with the soil fungus Colletotrichum tofieldiae. This fungus colonizes thale cress through its roots and then lives within and between the root cells. It converts insoluble phosphate in the soil into soluble phosphate and releases the nutrient via the fungal mesh to its plant host, which needs it for growth. "The beneficial interaction between thale cress and Colletotrichum came as a surprise to us, because this fungal family occurs almost everywhere as a pathogen,"-***- "The Cologne-based scientists demonstrated that an intact innate immune system is needed for the symbiosis and allows the fungus to take up residence in the plant's roots only if the plant is not able to obtain enough soil phosphate on its own. However, if phosphate is plentiful, the plant launches a massive immune response. "It's a fantastically well-regulated system," Schulze-Lefert says. "A foe is therefore recognized as such only in specific circumstances. That's an entirely new take on the immune system."-"The scientists were also able to show which processes are involved. One process is known as the "phosphate starvation response," by means of which the plant senses the availability of phosphate in the soil and relays this information to a circuit that accelerates or slows plant growth. If soluble phosphate becomes scarce, the nutrient sensing system communicates with one branch of the plant immune system to accommodate the fungal tenant inside roots. This branch of the immune system directs the synthesis of mustard oil glycosides....Schulze-Lefert and his colleagues showed that in the absence of this synthesis pathway, C. tofieldiae becomes a life-threatening pathogen for thale cress.-***- "The only species among the brassicas that do not synthesize mustard oil glycosides, namely the shepherd's purse, does not tolerate the fungus. For the shepherd's purse, C. tofieldiae is a deadly pathogen. Evidently, absence of the synthesis pathway for mustard oil glycosides means that the molecular basis for a beneficial coexistence is missing.-***-"'We've now shown that a Colletotrichum fungus which we discovered by accident does not take up residence in the plant by accident," says Schulze-Lefert. It serves the thale cress as a substitute for the missing mycorrhiza fungus. Without Colletotrichum, the plant would have a very poor chance of survival in low phosphate soils. The mutual coexistence is beneficial to both partners, but only as long as the right conditions prevail."-Comment: How does this arrangement take place, if at first the fungus is deadly? It has to be an immediate solution. Half-steps won't work. Back to saltation. Note all done by biochemical action. Can cell communities create saltation, unless given a mechanism to use?