A First! Three way symbiotic plant/fungus/virus

[TreeCo]

The first three way symbiotic relationship involving plant/fungus/virus has been discovered. This caught my attention of course....are there mycorrhizae/virus relationships we are soon going to be discovering? Lets hope so!

"A closer look now shows that the fungus alone doesn't protect plants from heat, says virologist Marilyn Roossinck of the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation in Ardmore, Okla. The fungus itself has to be infected with a previously unknown agent, which she and her colleagues have named Curvularia thermal-tolerance virus, the group reports in the Jan. 26 Science."

The whole article will not fit here.

From the full article posted at: http://www.treeworld.info/showthread.php?p=980#post980

Dan

 

[TreeCo]

Re: A First! Three way symbiotic plant/fungus/vi

If mycorrhizae are found to be symbotic with viruses it would really get interesting. Notice in the article the virus was killed by freezing. I have read that soil temperature limits the range of some trees because of the percentage of die off of small roots over the winter. The tree must expend energy to regrow these roots in spring and the more that die.....the bigger the energy drain. It would be quite interesting if the virus involved in the symbiosis dies from the cold and therefore was part of the soil temperature growth limitations we see in trees.

I bet the people at PHC find this research interesting.

Wonder what doors may open for the control of fungi using viruses that attack them Vs. being symbiotic?

 

[WPArborist]

Re: A First! Three way symbiotic plant/fungus/vi

That is very interesting!

Could open new doors to deal with Verticillium and Fusarium wilt, Armillaria and probably many more that aren't springing to mind. I'm sure there are a great deal of relationships that we are not aware of yet, looking forward to hearing more though.