Dissertation Research: Asexuality and Parasitism by Mutualist Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi

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9801551 Antonovics and Pringle Models on reproductive ecology of mutualisms have not been well developed or tested. Considering sexual vs. asexual reproduction, it has been hypothesized that mutualistic species that live inside other species, for example arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi that inhabit plant roots, should be asexual which would allow the perpetuation of well adapted genotypes. Sexual reproduction, in contrast, would create novel genotypes that might be less adapted to a host. Information on the reproductive biology of mutualists is necessary to test this notion. I plan to describe the genetic system of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi as a first step in evaluating the asexual-predominance hypothesis for mutualisms. I also plan to test the benefits to plants of associations with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. This is necessary since a non-mutual relationship between fungi and plants due to environmental conditions or differing interactions with specific plants would provide situations that are inappropriate for testing the hypothesis.