Arbuscular mycorrhizal association regulates global root-seed coordination

Yang, Qingpei; Guo, Binglin; Lu, Mingzhen; Liu, Yanjie; Kardol, Paul; Reich, Peter B.; Bardgett, Richard D.; Cornelissen, Johannes H. C.; Kraft, Nathan J. B.; Diaz, Sandra; Wright, Ian J.; He, Nianpeng; Hogan, J. Aaron; Pei, Yuxin; Han, Qinwen; Li, Zhenjiang; Wang, Zheng; Yang, Wanqin; Ding, Junxiang; Yang, Zhongling; Wu, Huifang; Carmona, Carlos P.; Valverde-Barrantes, Oscar J.; Li, Dezhu; Cai, Jie; Zeng, Hui; Zhang, Yue; Ren, Weizheng; Zhao, Yong; Yang, Xitian; Fan, Guoqiang; Wang, Junjian; Li, Guoyong; Kong, Deliang

doi:10.1038/s41477-025-02089-4

Research article2025Peer reviewed

Arbuscular mycorrhizal association regulates global root-seed coordination

Yang, Qingpei; Guo, Binglin; Lu, Mingzhen; Liu, Yanjie; Kardol, Paul; Reich, Peter B.; Bardgett, Richard D.; Cornelissen, Johannes H. C.; Kraft, Nathan J. B.; Diaz, Sandra; Wright, Ian J.; He, Nianpeng; Hogan, J. Aaron; Pei, Yuxin; Han, Qinwen; Li, Zhenjiang; Wang, Zheng; Yang, Wanqin; Ding, Junxiang; Yang, Zhongling;
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Abstract

Terrestrial plants exhibit immense variation in their form and function among species. Coordination between resource acquisition by roots and reproduction through seeds could promote the fitness of plant populations. How root and seed traits covary has remained unclear until our analysis of the largest-ever compiled joint global dataset of root traits and seed mass. Here we demonstrate that seed mass and seed phosphorus mass scale positively with root diameter in arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) plants, depending on variation in root cortical thickness instead of root vessel size. These findings suggest a dual role of AM association in phosphorus uptake and pathogen resistance which drives the global root-seed coordination, instead of initially expected resource transport via root vessels as the main driver. In contrast, we found no relationship between root traits and seed mass in ectomycorrhizal plants. Overall, our study reveals coordination between roots and seeds in AM plants, which is probably regulated by root-mycorrhizal symbiosis, and may be crucial in shaping global plant diversity and species distributions.

Published in

Nature Plants
2025
Publisher: NATURE PORTFOLIO

SLU Authors

Kardol, Paul
- Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

UKÄ Subject classification

Botany

Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-025-02089-4

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/143557