Ancient evolutionary innovation enabled cooperation between plants and nitrogen-fixing bacteria
Wednesday, June 11, 2014 - 09:50
in Biology & Nature
Bees pollinate plants in return for nectar, ants protect trees in return for housing, even our own bodies house microbial partners that help us digest our food. These types of beneficial relationships, called mutualisms, are at the heart of the world's biodiversity. Now an international team of scientists, led by VU University researchers, has published in Nature Communications how to reconstruct the ancient history of these partnerships and pinpoint the major events leading to the emergence of such ancient collaborations. This research has been financed by an NWO Vidi grant.