Project description
Biophysical signals driving global ecosystem resilience
Underground mycorrhizal fungi form intricate networks that exchange soil nutrients for plant carbon, a process vital for ecosystem health and the climate. Despite their importance, it remains unclear how these networks coordinate complex trading behaviours without a central brain. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the COMYCO project aims to address this using advanced biophysical tools and robotic imaging to track how fungal networks respond to environmental changes in real time. By measuring internal signals such as electrical pulses and pressure, the research will uncover how coordinated behaviour emerges in these decentralised systems. Additional objectives include providing a new mechanistic understanding of fungal intelligence, ultimately helping to protect biodiversity and enhance agricultural resilience.
Objective
Underground, mycorrhizal fungi build complex networks to engage in symbiotic nutrient transfer with plants, exchanging soil nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) for plant-derived carbon. These plant-fungal partnerships play a critical role in carbon cycling, mineral uptake, and ecosystem resilience. Recent research from the host group and others has found that mycorrhizal fungi exhibit complex behaviours that regulate nutrient exchange with their plant hosts. Yet, despite their ecological importance, the cellular dynamics and the signals that enable these sophisticated behaviours across mycelial networks lacking central organisation remain unknown.
Through a new biophysical approach, COMYCO seeks to unravel how mycorrhizal fungi mediate their behaviour to engage in symbiotic trade. I will develop micromanipulation techniques to deliver (1) localised perturbations at the cellular level and (2) network-scale stimuli that alter the growth environment. These stimuli will perturb nutrient transport machinery, metabolism and host availability to trigger behavioural responses. Leveraging robotic imaging technologies from the host lab, I will quantify responses from individual hyphae (microns) to entire networks (centimetres). This will enable unprecedented stimulus-response experimental paradigms that quantify mycorrhizal behaviour in real time. To explore the exact signals that mediate these responses, I build on my expertise in microfabricated glass probe techniques and the host lab’s strength in fluorescence imaging, quantifying (1) electric membrane potential, (2) intracellular calcium concentration, and (3) turgor pressure in fungal signalling processes.
Integrating these cross-scale experiments through biophysical analyses, my research will establish a new mechanistic understanding of how coordinated behaviours emerge in a network devoid of central organisation. These new insights will impact future interventions for sustaining biodiversity, agriculture and climate.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry alkaline earth metals
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology mycology
- engineering and technology materials engineering amorphous solids
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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3526 KV Utrecht
Netherlands
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