Editorial: Highlights on mycorrhizal symbioses

Mycorrhizas are common mutualistic symbioses formed between soil fungi and plant roots. The symbiotic status improves plant mineral nutrition at the cost of a fraction of the photosynthetically fixed carbon. As a result, plant growth is positively impacted as well as host resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Furthermore, mycorrhizas provide a number of ecosystem services in both agricultural and natural settings. Indeed, mycorrhizal fungi shape microbial and plant communities, enhance carbon storage, and alter soil particle aggregation (Chen et al., 2018; Tedersoo et al., 2020). Arbuscular, ecto–, orchid, and ericoid mycorrhizas are the four main mycorrhizal types, each with distinct morphological and functional traits resulting from over 400 million years of co-evolution between plants and symbiotic fungi (Genre et al., 2020). Over 320,000 existing vascular and non-vascular plant species can develop mycorrhizas, with the largest and most varied group of species belonging to angiosperms. Trees, bushes, herbs, and most staple crops (including rice, maize and tomato) are among them. Within this astounding diversity, arbuscular mycorrhizas are of particular interest due to their potential to support sustainable crop production in the context of global climate change. Ectomycorrhizas have massive potential in forest management, while ericoid and orchid mycorrhizas have successfully been applied in bioremediation and ecosystem conservation studies. Launched in conjunction with the 6th International Molecular Mycorrhiza Meeting (iMMM 2023), which took place in Cambridge, UK, from September 25–27, 2023, this Research Topic has yielded seven selected contributions that cover most of the topics discussed at the meeting with original research, methods and review papers about mycorrhizal associations. In line with the meeting’s major focus, most studies dealt with molecular aspects of arbuscular mycorrhizal interactions.