Kardol, Paul
- Institutionen för skogens ekologi och skötsel, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
- Institutionen för skoglig mykologi och växtpatologi, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
Sammanfattning
Terrestrial plants exhibit immense variation in their form and function among species. Coordination between resource acquisition by roots and reproduction through seeds could promote the fitness of plant populations. How root and seed traits covary has remained unclear until our analysis of the largest-ever compiled joint global dataset of root traits and seed mass. Here we demonstrate that seed mass and seed phosphorus mass scale positively with root diameter in arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) plants, depending on variation in root cortical thickness instead of root vessel size. These findings suggest a dual role of AM association in phosphorus uptake and pathogen resistance which drives the global root-seed coordination, instead of initially expected resource transport via root vessels as the main driver. In contrast, we found no relationship between root traits and seed mass in ectomycorrhizal plants. Overall, our study reveals coordination between roots and seeds in AM plants, which is probably regulated by root-mycorrhizal symbiosis, and may be crucial in shaping global plant diversity and species distributions.
Publicerad i
Nature Plants
2025
Utgivare: NATURE PORTFOLIO
SLU författare
UKÄ forskningsämne
Botanik
Publikationens identifierare
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-025-02089-4
Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/143557