Dynamic genome organization in an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus

Abstract

or (inter)chromosomal rearrangements due to the activity of transposable elements [Daboussi, 1997;Torres et al., 2020]. It should be noted that several fungal species that were initially considered to be asexual were later found to have hidden or cryptic sexual cycles [De Jonge et al., 2013]. These fungi may only undergo a sexual cycle under specific environmental conditions, that are not easily reproducible in the lab. This complicates the distinction between sexual and truly asexual fungi. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungiOne group of intriguing fungi for which a heterokaryotic nature may be especially relevant and whose genetic make-up has been a matter of debate for several decades, are the AM fungi [Smith and Read, 2010]. These fungi are part of the Glomeromycota subphylum of the Mucuromycota , sister clade to the Dikarya, and are arguably the most successful plant symbionts [ Van der Heijden et al., 1998].These soil fungi form symbiotic interactions with the majority of vascular land plants [Smith and Read, 2010;Öpik et al., 2013]. This interaction is ancient, as traces of AM fungi have been found in fossils of the earliest land plants [