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Cellular anatomy of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

Summary

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are special underground fungi that form partnerships with plant roots to help plants grow. Unlike most cells, these fungi form long, tube-like structures without walls dividing them into sections, allowing nutrients and other materials to flow freely throughout their networks. This review explains how these fungi are built at the cellular level, including their walls, membranes, and internal structures, helping scientists better understand how they exchange nutrients with plants and contribute to healthy ecosystems.

Background

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are ancient plant mutualists that form multinucleate, open-pipe mycelial networks without physical barriers called septa. These fungi are ubiquitous across terrestrial ecosystems and play crucial roles in plant growth, ecosystem diversity, and carbon cycling. Despite their ecological significance, the cellular biology of AM fungi remains underexplored due to challenges in culturing these obligate biotrophs and visualizing living hyphae at high resolution.

Objective

This review synthesizes current knowledge on AM fungal cellular structure and organization across three biological levels: individual hyphae and their anatomy, hyphal networks with network-level cellular dynamics, and AM fungal spores. The goal is to understand how the unique cellular arrangement of AM fungi enables complex cytoplasmic flow and nutrient exchange processes.

Results

The review documents key cellular components including multilayered cell walls with varying chitin and glucan distribution, plasma membranes involved in nutrient transport, cytoskeletal structures including microtubules and actin, and numerous organelles (nuclei, mitochondria, vacuoles, lipid droplets). The extensive tubular vacuole system and apical vesicle crescent are highlighted as important features for polarized growth and nutrient translocation.

Conclusion

Understanding AM fungal cell biology is essential for predicting symbiotic nutrient exchange and ecosystem functioning. The review identifies critical knowledge gaps regarding obscure organelles, actin dynamics, and network-level gene expression, and proposes advanced techniques including single-molecule FISH, live-cell imaging, and microfluidics to resolve outstanding questions in AM fungal cellular biology.
  • Published in:Current Biology,
  • Study Type:Review,
  • Source: PMID: 40494310, PMC12165283
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