A travelling-wave strategy for plant–fungal trade

For nearly 450 million years, mycorrhizal fungi have constructed networks to collect and trade nutrient resources with plant roots<sup>1,2</sup>. Owing to their dependence on host-derived carbon, these fungi face conflicting trade-offs in building networks that balance construction costs against geographical coverage and long-distance resource transport to and from roots<sup>3</sup>. How they navigate these design challenges is unclear<sup>4</sup>. Here, to monitor the construction of living trade networks, we built a custom-designed robot for high-throughput time-lapse imaging that could track over 500,000 fungal nodes simultaneously. We then measured around 100,000 cytoplasmic flow trajectories inside the networks. We found that mycorrhizal fungi build networks as self-regulating travelling waves-pulses of growing tips pull an expanding wave of nutrient-absorbing mycelium, the density of which is self-regulated by fusion. This design offers a solution to conflicting trade demands because relatively small carbon investments fuel fungal range expansions beyond nutrient-depletion zones, fostering exploration for plant partners and nutrients. Over time, networks maintained highly constant transport efficiencies back to roots, while simultaneously adding loops that shorten paths to potential new trade partners. Fungi further enhance transport flux by both widening hyphal tubes and driving faster flows along 'trunk routes' of the network<sup>5</sup>. Our findings provide evidence that symbiotic fungi control network-level structure and flows to meet trade demands, and illuminate the design principles of a symbiotic supply-chain network shaped by millions of years of natural selection.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Nature
Published
2025-02-26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08614-x
Citations
38
Primary Topic
Mycorrhizal Fungi and Plant Interactions
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
66.49
Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

A travelling-wave strategy for plant–fungal trade

Maren van Son, M. Kamp, Jaap van Krugten, Vasilis Kokkoris et al.
38 citations
Nature
Mycorrhizal Fungi and Plant Interactions
66.49
article

A travelling-wave strategy for plant–fungal trade

Maren van Son, M. Kamp, Jaap van Krugten, Vasilis Kokkoris, Marco Seynen, Christophe Godin, Thomas Shimizu, Malin Klein, Bianca Turcu, Merlin Sheldrake, Jan Zomerdijk, Victor Caldas, Evelina Tutucci, Sander Van Otterdijk, E. Toby Kiers, Howard A. Stone, K. C. Lin, Loreto Oyarte Gálvez, Philippe Bourrianne, Justin D. Stewart, Rachael I.M. Cargill, Victoria R. Terry, A. Prasad Babu, Corentin Bisot, Félix Kahane, Simon van Staalduine, Bas Steenbeek, Thomas Clerc
article en
38 citations

Abstract

For nearly 450 million years, mycorrhizal fungi have constructed networks to collect and trade nutrient resources with plant roots<sup>1,2</sup>. Owing to their dependence on host-derived carbon, these fungi face conflicting trade-offs in building networks that balance construction costs against geographical coverage and long-distance resource transport to and from roots<sup>3</sup>. How they navigate these design challenges is unclear<sup>4</sup>. Here, to monitor the construction of living trade networks, we built a custom-designed robot for high-throughput time-lapse imaging that could track over 500,000 fungal nodes simultaneously. We then measured around 100,000 cytoplasmic flow trajectories inside the networks. We found that mycorrhizal fungi build networks as self-regulating travelling waves-pulses of growing tips pull an expanding wave of nutrient-absorbing mycelium, the density of which is self-regulated by fusion. This design offers a solution to conflicting trade demands because relatively small carbon investments fuel fungal range expansions beyond nutrient-depletion zones, fostering exploration for plant partners and nutrients. Over time, networks maintained highly constant transport efficiencies back to roots, while simultaneously adding loops that shorten paths to potential new trade partners. Fungi further enhance transport flux by both widening hyphal tubes and driving faster flows along 'trunk routes' of the network<sup>5</sup>. Our findings provide evidence that symbiotic fungi control network-level structure and flows to meet trade demands, and illuminate the design principles of a symbiotic supply-chain network shaped by millions of years of natural selection.

NatureVol. 639(8053)
Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (FR), École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (FR), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique (FR), Princeton University (US), Université Paris Cité (FR), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (FR), Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics (NL), Sorbonne Université (FR), Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (FR), Sorbonne Paris Cité (FR), Laboratoire Reproduction et Développement des Plantes (FR), Japan Society (US), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL), ESPCI Paris (FR)
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Mycorrhizal Fungi and Plant Interactions
66.49
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.