ArticleThe ISME journal2021
Fungal foraging behaviour and hyphal space exploration in micro-structured Soil Chips.
Article in The ISME journal, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Mapping of plant-fungal interactions on agriculture perception: a bibliometric analysis and systematic review.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Pooled it
- Opening the black box: in situ imaging of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal structures in soil using synchrotron-based micro-CT.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Effects of Different Vegetation-Soil Conditions on Soil Physicochemical Properties, Enzyme Activities, and Microbial Communities in Bauxite Mine Wasteland of Southwest China.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- A phase oscillator model of cell cycles reveals nuclear density control in a branched fungal network.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Microbial phosphorus cycling in terrestrial ecosystems.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- Soil as a Battlefield and a Reservoir: Linking Soil Components to the Epidemiology of Soilborne Plant Diseases.Microbial ecology · 2026Review
- Differences in mycelial turnover and persistence of wood-decay fungi at the microscale.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Medical facemask waste alters detritus decomposition and fungal communities in a freshwater pond.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Rhizospheric traits and plant functioning belowground.Plant communications · 2026Review
- Gradients of Aliveness and Engineering: A Taxonomy of Fungal Engineered Living Materials.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Article
- Interconnected worlds: a comprehensive review of fungal defenses, antimicrobial resistance, and their evolutionary dynamics.IMA fungus · 2026Review
- Ecological Modules Link Soil Aggregate Stability, Chemical Properties and Fungal Communities Under Plant Species-Based Revegetation.Environmental microbiology reports · 2025Article
- Cell wall remodeling in a fungal pathogen is required for hyphal growth into microspaces.mBio · 2025Article
- Mycelium Growth and Development ofJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Hierarchical Structure of the Program Used by Filamentous Fungi to Navigate in Confining Microenvironments.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Keystone protist suppression triggers mesopredator release and biotic homogenization in complex soil microbial communities.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- An experimental approach to study foraging memory in ectomycorrhizal mycelium.Communicative & integrative biology · 2025Article
- Harnessing Fungi Signaling in Living Composites.Global challenges (Hoboken, NJ) · 2024Article
- Towards establishing a fungal economics spectrum in soil saprobic fungi.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
How do fungi navigate through the complex microscopic maze-like structures found in the soil? Fungal behaviour, especially at the hyphal scale, is largely unknown and challenging to study in natural habitats such as the opaque soil matrix. We monitored hyphal growth behaviour and strategies of seven Basidiomycete litter decomposing species in a micro-fabricated "Soil Chip" system that simulates principal aspects of the soil pore space and its micro-spatial heterogeneity. The hyphae were faced with micrometre constrictions, sharp turns and protruding obstacles, and the species examined were found to have profoundly different responses in terms of foraging range and persistence, spatial exploration and ability to pass obstacles. Hyphal behaviour was not predictable solely based on ecological assumptions, and our results obtained a level of trait information at the hyphal scale that cannot be fully explained using classical concepts of space exploration and exploitation such as the phalanx/guerrilla strategies. Instead, we propose a multivariate trait analysis, acknowledging the complex trade-offs and microscale strategies that fungal mycelia exhibit. Our results provide novel insights about hyphal behaviour, as well as an additional understanding of fungal habitat colonisation, their foraging strategies and niche partitioning in the soil environment.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.