DISCUSSION OF FUNGAL MUTUALISTS

A mutualist is an organism that forms an alliance with a member of another species resulting in some benefit to both. In some cases more than two species may be involved. Mutualism is extremely common in nature but can be overlooked, especially when small organisms are involved. For example, a few years ago it was discovered that certain flies causing plant galls were inoculating these galls with the spores of certain fungi. The developing larvae then ate some of the fungus. In this case the fly clearly benefitted from the fungus and in return ensured that the fungus had a place to grow and a means of having its spores transported to new places.

Fungi form mutualisms with a great variety of other organisms. Some of these partnerships, such as lichens and mycorrhizae, are well understood and have been studied for decades, but many have yet to be discovered. Studying fungal mutualisms is often slow and painstaking work, but it challenges the imagination and can lead to wonderful new insights into the life of fungi.

On these pages we will look into mutualisms between fungi and algae, animals and plants. Among these are some of the most ecologically significant phenomena in nature