Publication
Title
Reciprocal rewards stabilize cooperation in the mycorrhizal symbiosis
Author
Abstract
Plants and their arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal symbionts interact in complex underground networks involving multiple partners. This increases the potential for exploitation and defection by individuals, raising the question of how partners maintain a fair, two-way transfer of resources. We manipulated cooperation in plants and fungal partners to show that plants can detect, discriminate, and reward the best fungal partners with more carbohydrates. In turn, their fungal partners enforce cooperation by increasing nutrient transfer only to those roots providing more carbohydrates. On the basis of these observations we conclude that, unlike many other mutualisms, the symbiont cannot be enslaved. Rather, the mutualism is evolutionarily stable because control is bidirectional, and partners offering the best rate of exchange are rewarded.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Science / American Association for the Advancement of Science [Washington, D.C.] - Washington, D.C., 1880, currens
Publication
Washington, D.C. : American Association for the Advancement of Science , 2012
ISSN
0036-8075 [print]
1095-9203 [online]
DOI
10.1126/SCIENCE.1208473
Volume/pages
333 :6044 (2012) , p. 880-882
ISI
000293785400041
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Publication type
Subject
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 21.10.2015
Last edited 27.01.2023
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