The role of active movement in fungal ecology and community assembly

Florian Jeltsch,Milica Lakovic,Carlos A. Aguilar-Trigueros,Miloš Bielčik,Matthias C. Rillig

doi:10.1186/s40462-019-0180-6

Abstract

Movement ecology aims to provide common terminology and an integrative framework of movement research across all groups of organisms. Yet such work has focused on unitary organisms so far, and thus the important group of filamentous fungi has not been considered in this context. With the exception of spore dispersal, movement in filamentous fungi has not been integrated into the movement ecology field. At the same time, the field of fungal ecology has been advancing research on topics like informed growth, mycelial translocations, or fungal highways using its own terminology and frameworks, overlooking the theoretical developments within movement ecology. We provide a conceptual and terminological framework for interdisciplinary collaboration between these two disciplines, and show how both can benefit from closer links: We show how placing the knowledge from fungal biology and ecology into the framework of movement ecology can inspire both theoretical and empirical developments, eventually leading towards a better understanding of fungal ecology and community assembly. Conversely, by a greater focus on movement specificities of filamentous fungi, movement ecology stands to benefit from the challenge to evolve its concepts and terminology towards even greater universality. We show how our concept can be applied for other modular organisms (such as clonal plants and slime molds), and how this can lead towards comparative studies with the relationship between organismal movement and ecosystems in the focus.

Highlights

With their role in organic matter decomposition and plant symbiosis, filamentous fungi are of tremendous importance in all terrestrial ecosystems
We propose the following definition as inclusive for all organisms that interact with their environment in the ways described by the movement ecology framework of Nathan et al [3] and Jeltsch et al [4]: Active movement is any translocation of biomass sustained by an organism’s own energy resources, which is steered in response to environmental cues and stimuli, or by environmental selection pressures, and can in turn result in a direct effect on the biotic and abiotic environment
We reviewed studies in fungal biology and ecology through the lens of movement ecology, and proposed an inclusive definition of active movement; our definition covers all movement types which organisms from diverse groups can employ in order to interact with their environment

Summary

Introduction

With their role in organic matter decomposition and plant symbiosis, filamentous fungi are of tremendous importance in all terrestrial ecosystems. Motion capacity Three different kinds of translocation in hyphae and mycelium can enable a direct response to the environment, and can be recognized as forms of active movement: Hyphal (mycelial) growth [9, 10], transport within the cytoplasm [11, 12], and migration (retraction) of the entire cytoplasm within a hypha [13].

Results

Conclusion