THE LAND FLORA - A PHOTOTROPH-FUNGUS PARTNERSHIP

Numerous mutualistic associations between phototrophs and fungi exist in the extant land biota. Some are widespread, such as lichens and myc orrhizae, but some are less well known or restricted to special ecolog ical conditions, such as endophytes in plants and algae. Recent molecu lar data and fossils suggest that associations arose repeatedly and th at some of them are ancient, and even ancestral in the case of land pl ants. Mutualism, that provides various adaptations to terrestrial cons traints, may have played a crucial role during terrestrialization and evolution of land phototrophs.