Summary
This theoretical study challenges the assumption that plants actively warn neighbours of herbivory or pathogen attack through mycorrhizal fungal networks by showing such signalling is rarely evolutionarily stable—because warnings benefit competing neighbours more than the signalling plant. The authors propose two plausible alternatives: unavoidable costly cues from the attack process itself, or mycorrhizal fungi acting as independent monitors and intermediaries to warn connected plants.
UK applicability
The findings are relevant to understanding soil–plant–fungal interactions in UK agroecosystems and may inform interpretation of field experiments examining plant communication in British agricultural and natural soils. However, as a theoretical study, direct application to UK farming practice requires empirical validation in temperate soil conditions.
Key measures
Evolutionary stability of signalling strategies; relative fitness consequences of warning signals; conditions under which alternative mechanisms (costly cues vs. fungal monitoring) remain viable
Outcomes reported
The study used evolutionary game theory to examine whether plant warning signals through mycorrhizal networks are evolutionarily stable. It identified two viable mechanisms that could explain empirical observations of defence upregulation in connected plants: unavoidable costly cues from attack, or direct fungal monitoring and signalling.
Topic tags
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