IT'S a mould breaker. Researchers have discovered the first fungus that behaves as a farmer.
Pilar Junier of the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and colleagues studied the soil fungus Morchella crassipes and its relationship with Pseudomonas putida bacteria. To track the flow of nutrients, she labelled the fungus with carbon-13 in one experiment, and labelled the bacteria with the isotope in a second. After five days, the bacteria had gained nutrients from the fungus. But then the tables turned and the fungus started taking nutrients from the bacteria (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.2242).
Junier thinks the fungus first cultivates the bacteria by feeding them, and then harvests them. The fungus may actually eat the bacteria, although it's not clear how. "We think digestive enzymes are involved."
This article appeared in print under the headline "First farming fungi found in soil"
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