ERC Consolidator Grant · 2019
A Mycorrhizal Revolution: The role of diverse symbiotic fungi in modern terrestrial ecosystems
The colonisation of the landmasses by plants >500 Mya was a major turning point in Earth’s history, drastically altering the development of the biosphere and providing the basis for all terrestrial life ever since. The hypothesis that early plants were facilitated in their invasion of the land environment by forming symbioses with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) is widely supported by fossil and molecular evidence. My previous findings in physiology identified the role of AMF as a driving force in evolution by supporting growing nutrient demands of increasingly large plants, against a background of declining atmospheric CO2. Recently, it was revealed that the earliest groups of extant…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.