Can we use plant relatedness as a shortcut to predict root microbiomes?

In our new study, we tested this idea directly. Out now in ISME Communications.

Here we used machine learning, phylogenies, and root traits for 22 plant species covering 135 million years evolution.

doi.org/10.1093/isme...

Postdoctoral scholarship (2 years) in mycorrhizal biogeography and species distribution modelling

Postdoc (2 years) in mycorrhizal fungal biogeography & species distribution modelling @umeaplantsciencecentre.se
Work with large-scale metabarcoding data and modelling.

Deadline is 30th April
www.umu.se/en/work-with...

PhD opportunity: How flexible are AM fungi?

This project explores fungal trait plasticity and consequences for plant growth and nutrient uptake.
Experimental + quantitative focus.
www.upsc.se/jobs/6672-ph...

Some news: I’m joining Umeå Plant Science Centre at Umeå University next month as a group leader!

Expanding the mycorrhizal adventures to new systems, forests, collaborations & opportunities. I’ll recruit students & postdocs soon

Very much still part of the HIE! with my research continuing there

Boreal forest soils are major carbon reservoirs. But how does soil biodiversity shape the fate of this carbon?

Thanks to the Finnish Cultural Foundation, @sanslan.bsky.social and I will untangle how soil fauna–fungi interactions influence carbon pools in Finland.

#skr2026
skr.fi/en/news/trac...

Manifestation of symbiont plasticity, expressed as root mutualist flexibility.

Martin Zobel is the corresponding author of the recently published #TansleyReview ‘#Symbiont plasticity as a driver of plant success.’

📖 doi.org/10.1111/nph....

#mycorrhiza #PlantScience

#TansleyReview: Mycelial dynamics in arbuscular mycorrhizal #fungi

Vasilis Kokkoris 👇

📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#LatestIssue #PlantScience

We’ve posted a new preprint providing evidence that endophytic fungi facilitate resource transfer through common mycelial networks. A neat aspect of our study is that we measured fungal functional changes when connected to more than one plant, not just the plants!
doi.org/10.21203/rs....

Mid-week #mycorrhiza 🍄
A tangentially-festive sample this week: arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi colonising the root cells of Ivy 🌿🎄☃️
#mycosky #festive #fungi

A tuft of red-tipped Cladonia lichen is growing on a tree branch. Fluffy white cotton grass is in the background.

Cladonia on a stick, among a patch of cottongrass. Newfoundland, Canada.
#lichen #fungi #fungifriends #wildflower

Mutualist-pathogen co-colonisation modulates phosphoinositide signatures at host intracellular interfaces: Nicotiana benthamiana plants expressing biosensors for PI4P and PI(4,5)P2. PI(4,5)P2 was tip-enriched at mutualist structures but evenly distributed around pathogen structures. PI4P was absent from pathogen extrahaustorial membranes but present at invasive hyphae and mutualist interfaces. Co-colonisation triggered PI4P recruitment at pathogen haustoria, and enhanced resistance to P. palmivora. Graphic by Alex Guyon.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi boost plant resilience by remodelling the plant-pathogen membrane interface
Check-out the latest paper from @alexguyon.bsky.social & @dromius.bsky.social
📖 doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social
News article www.slcu.cam.ac.uk/news/arbuscu...

World's largest mistletoe among flora blooming for Australian Christmas As the summer heat settles in, flora and fauna associated with Christmas in Australia can be spotted throughout the country.

Summer brings its own delights in the Aussie bush, like the beautiful moodjar tree (or WA Christmas tree), colourful Christmas spiders and other delights 🌿🌱
#ozflora #ausinverts #wildoz #mistletoe

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...

Precipitation increase promotes soil organic carbon formation and stability via the mycorrhizal fungal pathway | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #stableisotopes

Not Extremely Plastic: Testing the Limits of Morphological Plasticity in Fungal Mycelia in Response to Soil Grazers Using image analysis to track the development of fungal networks in the presence of predators, we found that even in modular organisms, plasticity is more nuanced and limited than previously assumed....

Turns out fungi aren’t as plastic as we might think, their responses to grazers are much more species-specific.

Very cool work from the fungal wizard @aguilart.bsky.social

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

✨ It was a pleasure to have @manjeet786.bsky.social from @westsyduhie.bsky.social join our symposium, presenting both a poster and a speed talk. He shared fascinating insights into how arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi can—and cannot—support sorghum in the fight against charcoal rot.

#ESA2025

Ancient fossil reveals how plants and fungi first developed on land | Natural History Museum A new fossil fungus discovered in Scotland shows evidence of plants and fungi sharing nutrients to survive on land.

A new fossil fungus discovered in Scotland shows evidence of plants and fungi sharing nutrients to survive on land.

The fossil, more than 400 million years old, offers hints about the origin of one of the greatest partnerships in the history of life on Earth.

www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...

Maximum entropy networks show that plant–arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi associations are anti‐nested and modular There is uncertainty in whether there is a common pattern of nestedness and modularity in plant–arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi associations, partly because of limitations arising from the use of ...

Paper just out @newphyt.bsky.social

Ajaz et al.
Maximum entropy networks show that plant–arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi associations are anti-nested and modular

w/ Tancredi Caruso

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

a century of glaciers melting 🧪🌐

Fig. 2 Phylogenetically distinct structures produced by the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal mycelium.

✨ Paper spotlight ✨

Mycelial Dynamics in Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

(🧵 1/5) Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi form vast underground hyphal networks that support plant life.

Mycorrhizae-associated belowground economics mediate microbial life history strategy in temperate forests The co-evolution of plant roots, mycorrhizal fungi, and soil saprotrophic microorganisms shapes underground resource acquisition strategies of plants.…

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Overview of key data of the ‘Mycorrhiza’ database.

Research landscape of experiments on #GlobalChange effects on #mycorrhizas

A #Letter by Lehmann et al. 👇

📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#LatestIssue #PlantScience

Defining the pre-symbiotic transcriptional landscape of rice roots Plants interact with a plethora of organisms in the rhizosphere, with outcomes that range from detrimental to beneficial. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is the most ubiquitous beneficial plant ...

It's been a busy time in the Paszkowski lab!

First, a pre-print on how rice distinguishes friend (AM fungi)🍄 from foe (pathogens)👾: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

And second, a review on single-cell omic approaches to understand the spatially and temporally complex AM symbiosis 🔬: doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

A simple plant–mycorrhizal fungal resource trade co‐evolution model explains mutualism stability, extinction and transitory parasitism via fitness feedback The mutualism between mycorrhizal fungi and plants has persisted for over 400 million years, despite the mutualism paradox predicting that mutualisms should be evolutionarily unstable due to the fit.....

Loyalty and nutrient trade… University of Western Australia researchers show how plants and fungi keep their partnerships alive—even in the face of cheating 🍃 ❤️ 🍄

#Mycorrhiza #Evolution

Ectomycorrhizal fungi being introduced together with their plant hosts on Isla Victoria, Bariloche, Patagonia, Argentina, in 1936.

Invasive ectomycorrhizal fungi in South America

📖 buff.ly/ZgIX5IC
#TansleyInsight by @nahpo.bsky.social and @martin-nunez.bsky.social

@uh.edu @WileyPlantSci #PlantSci

Image source: Colección y Archivo Visual Patagónico; Photographer: Antonio Lynch; courtesy of Federico Silin.

Fig. 1 Schematic representation of broad groups of traits measurable across plant organs.

✨ Paper spotlight ✨

(🧵 1/6) The path towards a unified trait space: synthesizing plant functional diversity
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Drought legacy effects on plant growth and plant–soil feedback are mediated by soil microbial communities independently of root exudates and root litter The results show that drought indirectly restricts plant growth, which is not mediated by root exudates or root litter, but through altering microbial biomass and community composition. These finding...

Extremely proud of Eileen Enderle for publishing her second PhD paper in @journalofecology.bsky.social !!

She shows that the impact that drought has on plant-soil feedback is mediated by soil bacterial and fungal communities.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

The Fascinating Map of Fungi Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

Great to collaborate with @DomainOfScience on this new video, with our scientists inputting on the fascinating map of fungi 🍄🌍 From medicines to forests, fungi are a kingdom of life shaping our world.

Discover just how important they are in 20 minutes 👇

ow.ly/u4fc50X2JRo

Necromass of Diverse Root‐Associated Fungi Suppresses Decomposition of Native Soil Carbon via Impacts of Their Traits We investigated the decomposition of diverse root-associated fungi, their influence on native soil carbon (C) dynamics and the relationship of these processes with fungal traits. Fungal melanin, blac....

Very interesting paper on fungal [necromass] traits and soil organic matter priming

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Ecology (definitely) matters!

Check out this beautiful book that also features our committee member @frewecologist.bsky.social interview!

Part 5 Forgotten species: species that are often overlooked
The pivotal role of mycorrhizal fungi – Dr Adam Frew
👏👏👏

Pleased to share our new article in Cell Host & Microbe, a collaboration with the group of Zhong Wei at NJAU

Common mycorrhizal networks facilitate plant disease resistance by altering rhizosphere microbiome assembly

Free share link: authors.elsevier.com/c/1lnTD6t8JE...