Myco-heterotrophy: when fungi host plants.
BACKGROUND
Myco-heterotrophic plants are partly or entirely non-photosynthetic plants that obtain energy and nutrients from fungi. These plants form a symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal, ectomycorrhizal or saprotrophic fungi to meet their nutrient demands.


METHODS
This Botanical Briefing summarizes current knowledge about myco-heterotrophy, discusses its controversial aspects and highlights future directions for research.


CONCLUSIONS
Considerable recent progress has been made in terms of understanding the evolutionary history, germination and nutrition of myco-heterotrophic plants. Myco-heterotrophic plants: (1) are diverse and often ancient lineages that have coevolved with fungi, (2) often demonstrate unusually high specificity towards fungi during germination and maturity, and (3) can either cheat common mycorrhizal networks supported by neighbouring photosynthetic plants to satisfy all or part of their energetic and nutritional needs, or recruit free-living saprotrophic fungi into novel mycorrhizal symbioses. However, several fundamental aspects of myco-heterotrophy remain controversial or unknown, such as symbiotic costs and physiology.
Merckx
Vincent
V
Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. merckx@nature.berkeley.edu
Bidartondo
Martin I
MI
Hynson
Nicole A
NA
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D017753:Ecosystem; D052836:Heterotrophic Processes; D038821:Mycorrhizae / Q000502:physiology*; D013045:Species Specificity; D013559:Symbiosis