Evolution and networks in ancient and widespread symbioses between Mucoromycotina and liverworts

Like the majority of land plants, liverworts regularly form intimate symbioses with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Glomeromycotina). Recent phylogenetic and physiological studies report that they also form intimate symbioses with Mucoromycotina fungi and that some of these, like those involving Glomeromycotina, represent nutritional mutualisms. To compare these symbioses, we carried out a global analysis of Mucoromycotina fungi in liverworts and other plants using species delimitation, ancestral reconstruction, and network analyses. We found that Mucoromycotina are more common and diverse symbionts of liverworts than previously thought, globally distributed, ancestral, and often co-occur with Glomeromycotina within plants. However, our results also suggest that the associations formed by Mucoromycotina fungi are fundamentally different because, unlike Glomeromycotina, they may have evolved multiple times and their symbiotic networks are un-nested (i.e., not forming nested subsets of species). We infer that the global Mucoromycotina symbiosis is evolutionarily and ecologically distinctive

First evidence of mutualism between ancient plant lineages (Haplomitriopsida liverworts) and Mucoromycotina fungi and its response to simulated Palaeozoic changes in atmospheric CO2

© 2014 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2014 New Phytologist Trust. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The attached file is the published version of the article

Functional analysis of liverworts in dual symbiosis with Glomeromycota and Mucoromycotina fungi under a simulated Palaeozoic CO2 decline.

Most land plants form mutualistic associations with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi of the Glomeromycota, but recent studies have found that ancient plant lineages form mutualisms with Mucoromycotina fungi. Simultaneous associations with both fungal lineages have now been found in some plants, necessitating studies to understand the functional and evolutionary significance of these tripartite associations for the first time. We investigate the physiology and cytology of dual fungal symbioses in the early-diverging liverworts Allisonia and Neohodgsonia at modern and Palaeozoic-like elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations under which they are thought to have evolved. We found enhanced carbon cost to liverworts with simultaneous Mucoromycotina and Glomeromycota associations, greater nutrient gain compared with those symbiotic with only one fungal group in previous experiments and contrasting responses to atmospheric CO2 among liverwort-fungal symbioses. In liverwort-Mucoromycotina symbioses, there is increased P-for-C and N-for-C exchange efficiency at 440 p.p.m. compared with 1500 p.p.m. CO2. In liverwort-Glomeromycota symbioses, P-for-C exchange is lower at ambient CO2 compared with elevated CO2. No characteristic cytologies of dual symbiosis were identified. We provide evidence of a distinct physiological niche for plant symbioses with Mucoromycotina fungi, giving novel insight into why dual symbioses with Mucoromycotina and Glomeromycota fungi persist to the present day.The ISME Journal advance online publication, 27 November 2015; doi:10.1038/ismej.2015.204

Data from: Ancient plants with ancient fungi: liverworts associate with early-diverging arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

Arbuscular mycorrhizas are widespread in land plants including liverworts, some of the closest living relatives of the first plants to colonise land 500 MYA. Previous investigations reported near-exclusive colonisation of liverworts by the most recently evolved arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, the Glomeraceae, indicating a recent acquisition from flowering plants at odds with the widely-held notion that arbuscular mycorrhizal-like associations in liverworts represent the ancestral symbiotic condition in land plants. We performed an analysis of symbiotic fungi in 674 globally-collected liverworts using molecular phylogenetics and electron microscopy. Here we show every order of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi colonises early-diverging liverworts, with non-Glomeraceae being at least ten times more common than in flowering plants. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in liverworts and other ancient plant lineages (hornworts, lycopods and ferns) were delimited into 58 taxa and 36 singletons, of which at least 43 are novel and specific to liverworts. The discovery that early plant lineages are colonised by early-diverging fungi supports the hypothesis that arbuscular mycorrhizas are an ancestral symbiosis for all land plants

The application of the Chinese sense of ""balance"" to agreements signed between Chinese and foreign institutions in the Chinese higher education sector: Adding depth to a popular cultural concept

The Chinese sense of “balance” has been widely researched in the literature from several perspectives including culture (where it has been traced back to Confucian, neo-Confucian and Taoist roots), and business and market entry (where it has been linked to issues such as the development of trust, relationship building, and guanxi between foreign companies and Chinese partners). However, far less attention has been placed on how this sense of balance (in its various forms) actually, and specifically, affects the structure and process of undertaking strategic alliance activities between Chinese and foreign companies. This paper deals with this issue by examining agreements and associated activities undertaken between 206 Chinese universities and foreign education partners to identify whether there is any specific sense of balance between the two sides. The paper notes that successful agreements and alliances do reflect a tangible sense of balance in the way the agreements were structured and in terms of the processes used to implement and undertake associated activities. The value of the paper is that it notes that foreign universities and their Chinese partners need to organise and undertake balanced alliances in the Chinese strategic alliance context. The fact that all respondents indicated that balanced alliances were a key to success makes this observation even more useful. This paper, therefore, adds the concept of balance to the literature of strategic alliance in the higher educational field, at least in China

Symbiotic options for the conquest of land

The domination of the landmasses of Earth by plants starting during the Ordovician Period drastically altered the development of the biosphere and the composition of the atmosphere, with far-reaching consequences for all life ever since. It is widely thought that symbiotic soil fungi facilitated the colonization of the terrestrial environment by plants. However, recent discoveries in molecular ecology, physiology, cytology, and paleontology have brought into question the hitherto-assumed identity and biology of the fungi engaged in symbiosis with the earliest-diverging lineages of extant land plants. Here, we reconsider the existing paradigm and show that the symbiotic options available to the first plants emerging onto the land were more varied than previously thought