Plants feed on fungi: Groundbreaking method from Bayreuth enables unrestricted isotope analyses

Most plants worldwide live in symbiosis with fungi. Often there is an exchange of nutrients from which both partners benefit. In numerous other cases, however, the plants feed unilaterally at the expense of the fungi. International research groups led by Prof. Dr. Gerhard Gebauer at the University of Bayreuth have now presented a groundbreaking method in the journal "New Phytologist" that makes it possible for the first time to apply isotope analyses to all forms of symbiosis between plants and fungi without restrictions. In principle, it will be possible in the future to determine for each plant which and how many nutrients it obtains from fungal partners.