Question

Plants probably existed in beneficial relationships with fungi from the earliest periods of colonization of land. What essential roles did these fungi serve? Think about the earliest land plants, and their limitations. How could fungi help?

Answer 1

Earth first plant began to colonies the land over 470 millions years ago by forming symbiotic relationship with soil fungi. The plants grow and reporduce better where colonies by symbiotic fungi because fungi provide essential soil nutrients without them to breakdown detritus.It would be difficult for photosynthetic organisms to extract anything from the ground , in return the fungi also benefit by recieving carbon from the plants.

- An ancient plants like liverworts associate with early diverging arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi which makes the insoluble phosphate into soluble form for better absorption by the plants. It colonies early diverging liverworts at least 10 times more common than in flowering plants.