Waar wij trots op zijn - Ontdekker van het jaar - Universiteit Leiden

Mycoheterotrofe planten stelen suikers
van bodemschimmels. Ze zijn nogal
kieskeurig wat die schimmels betreft, liet
Merckx zien, en dat verklaart misschien
waarom ze zeldzaam zijn. Ze zijn klein
en onopvallend, maar sommige hebben
een prachtig bloemetje.
45
English summary
Most plant species form symbioses with soil fungi: mycorrhiza.
The mycorrhizal fungi help the plants to take up water and
nutrients; in exchange, they receive sugars from the plants. Some
plant species, however, are cheaters that steal sugars from their
fungal partners. This way of life is called mycoheterotrophy.
Vincent Merckx addresses some of the many questions that exist
about these plants. He discovered that as many as 20 percent of
mycorrhizal fungi types are susceptible to their cheating. He also
showed that each mycoheterotrophic plant cheats only a small
number of fungal types. So, the plants are highly specific, and
Merckx now tries to find out whether this specificity accounts
for their rarity.