The hidden half: a journey through plant-microbe interactions

Professor Thorunn Helgason, University of Edinburgh

Thursday 18th April 2024, 6pm

Lecture Theatre, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh

For the vast majority of plant species, what we observe in nature is not an individual plant, but a symbiotic phenotype – a combination of the plant host, and the symbiotic microbes that colonise it. The Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis, between the plant roots and a fungus, is ubiquitous, occurring in at least 2/3rds of land plants. In this talk, I will take you on a personal journey through my work on the AM fungi, their plant hosts and the soils they live in, in forests and agriculture, throughout the British Isles.