Mycotroph
Encyclopedia
A mycotroph is a plant
that gets all or part of its carbon, water, or nutrient supply through symbiotic association with fungi. The term can refer to plants that engage in either of two distinct symbioses with fungi:
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...
that gets all or part of its carbon, water, or nutrient supply through symbiotic association with fungi. The term can refer to plants that engage in either of two distinct symbioses with fungi:
- Many mycotrophs have a mutualistic association with fungi in any of several forms of mycorrhizaMycorrhizaA mycorrhiza is a symbiotic association between a fungus and the roots of a vascular plant....
. The majority of plant species are mycotrophic in this sense. - Some mycotrophs are parasitic upon fungi in an association known as myco-heterotrophyMyco-heterotrophyMyco-heterotrophy is a symbiotic relationship between certain kinds of plants and fungi, in which the plant gets all or part of its food from parasitism upon fungi rather than from photosynthesis. A myco-heterotroph is the parasitic plant partner in this relationship...
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