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Mycelium is a primary factor in some plants' health, nutrient intake and growth, with mycelium being a major factor to plant fitness. Networks of mycelia can transport water [4] and spikes of electrical potential. [5] Sclerotia are compact or hard masses of mycelium.
Cords may look similar to plant roots, and also frequently have similar functions; hence they are also called rhizomorphs (literally, "root-forms"). As well as growing underground or on the surface of trees and other plants, some fungi make mycelial cords which hang in the air from vegetation.
White threads of fungal mycelium are sometimes visible underneath leaf litter in a forest floor. A mycorrhizal network (also known as a common mycorrhizal network or CMN) is an underground network found in forests and other plant communities, created by the hyphae of mycorrhizal fungi joining with plant roots. This network connects individual ...
In return, the plant gains the benefits of the mycelium's higher absorptive capacity for water and mineral nutrients, partly because of the large surface area of fungal hyphae, which are much longer and finer than plant root hairs, and partly because some such fungi can mobilize soil minerals unavailable to the plants' roots. The effect is thus ...
Approximately seven days into the infection, the mycelium produces conidia. The conidia are then secreted out of the plant in a sugary liquid that insects, attracted by the sugars, transfer to other plants. After two weeks of being infected by the fungus, the plant no longer generates the sugary liquid, and the fungus produces sclerotia.
Unlike some plant root pathogenic fungi, ectomycorrhizal fungi are largely unable to produce many plant cell-wall-degrading enzymes, but increased pectin modification enzymes released by Laccaria bicolor during fungal infection and Hartig net development indicate that pectin degradation may function to loosen the adhesion between neighboring ...
The plant cell cytoskeleton is reorganized around the arbuscules. There are two other types of hyphae that originate from the colonized host plant root. Once colonization has occurred, short-lived runner hyphae grow from the plant root into the soil. These are the hyphae that take up phosphorus and micronutrients, which are conferred to the plant.
AMF are able to form symbioses with several plant species and connect to roots of different hosts, allowing CMN. Mycelium networks function through signals that are first produced in plants, then move to the roots and then migrate to AMF. Then, signals go through the plant surface where they can be transported to leaves or other organs.