Study
Interplant communication of tomato plants through underground common mycorrhizal networks
Song, Y. Y.; Zeng, R. S.; Xu, J. F.; Li, J.; Shen, X.; Yihdego, W. G.
PLoS ONE, 2010
Tomato plants were grown in pots divided by mesh of different pore sizes, allowing fungal hyphae to cross between plants in some treatments and not others while blocking roots in all of them. One plant of each pair was then infected with a leaf pathogen and the other was tested for defence gene activity and disease resistance.
- Studied in
- Solanum lycopersicum, Funneliformis mosseae, Alternaria solani
- Sample size
- paired donor and receiver plants in compartmented pots
Uninfected plants connected to an infected neighbour by fungal hyphae activated defence genes and resisted subsequent infection better than unconnected controls. Blocking the hyphae removed the effect.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Mycorrhizal networks can transmit a defence signal between plants, priming the receiver against a pathogen the donor has encountered.
How NatureHQ reads it
A well-controlled result for the phenomenon and a poor basis for the conclusions usually drawn from it. The mesh design is the strength: it separates a hyphal route from a root route and from a soil-water route. What it does not establish is that anything was sent — a receiver responding to a chemical leaking from a stressed neighbour is overhearing, not being addressed, and the experiment cannot tell those apart. It is also two crop plants in pots, which is a long way from a forest.
- A greenhouse system with a crop species and a single fungal partner.
- Cannot distinguish an evolved signal from a cue leaking into a shared conduit.
- Mesh treatments restrict hyphae but do not fully exclude diffusion of soluble compounds.
A mesh that lets a fungus through but not a root
If one plant is attacked, can a neighbour joined to it only by fungal threads respond before it is attacked itself?
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Public Library of SciencePublished in a PLOS journal under CC BY 4.0.
doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0013324
This reference was resolved automatically against Crossref and OpenAlex on 2026-08-30.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-08-30.