Mycorrhizal Symbiosis in Plant Growth and Stress Adaptation: From Genes to Ecosystems

Plant roots associate with diverse microbes (including bacteria, fungi, archaea, protists, and viruses) collectively called the root-associated microbiome. Among them, mycorrhizal fungi colonize host roots and improve their access to nutrients, usually phosphorus and nitrogen. In exchange, plants deliver photosynthetic carbon to the colonizing fungi. This nutrient exchange affects key soil processes, the carbon cycle, and plant health and therefore has a strong influence on the plant and microbe ecosystems. The framework of nutrient exchange and regulation between host plant and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi has recently been established. The local and systemic regulation of mycorrhizal symbiosis by plant nutrient status and the autoregulation of mycorrhizae are strategies by which plants maintain a stabilizing free-market symbiosis. A better understanding of the synergistic effects between mycorrhizal fungi and mycorrhizosphere microorganisms is an essential precondition for their use as biofertilizers and bioprotectors for sustainable agriculture and forestry management.