Why scientists are enlisting fungi to save endangered plants

Hundreds of tubes of soil pack a row of fridges and a nearby cold room at a greenhouse facility in Lawrence, Kansas. They’re nothing much to look at, but under a microscope, tiny beads within the dirt sparkle like jewels. Some are lemon yellow, others like teardrops of amber; some are white pearls stamped with brown dots that look like eyeballs staring back at you.

These microscopic gems are spores from fungi. “The spores are actually very pretty,” says the collection’s co-curator, plant ecologist Jim Bever of the University of Kansas. Beyond their charm, spores such as these may be a key to restoring imperiled plants and their ecosystems, whether critically endangered tallgrass prairie, patches of cloud forest in Colombia or some of the most threatened members of Hawaii’s unique flora.

The spores will spawn mycorrhizal fungi, the oldest and most widespread partner of plants — the two have lived and worked together for some 500 million years. Up to 90 percent of plants have mycorrhizae living among their roots (mycorrhizal means root-dwelling). In exchange for food, the fungi help the hosts obtain water and nutrients, ward off pathogens, and improve tolerance to drought. As a community, mycorrhizae form a subterranean pit crew for maintaining plant health, akin to the gut microbiome in the human body. (read more)