Nutrient transfer and host plant benefit
Level of relatedness affected the amount of quantum-dot apatite per mg
of fungal network transferred to the focal host root in in-vitroroot organ cultures (one-way ANOVA: F2,29=3.351,
p=0.049) (Fig. 5a). Specifically, selfing fungal networks formed between
A5-A5, transferred on average 36% more quantum-dot apatite per mg of
network to the focal host roots compared to when the partner plant was
inoculated with the non-selfing partner strain B12, and 28% more than
when the partner plant was inoculated with Agg.
Lastly, we tested for effect of relatedness on plant biomass in both
whole-plant and in-vitro experiments. In the whole-plant
experiment, we found no significant difference among total plant biomass
across relatedness treatments in the time frame of our experiment (Fig.
S4). However, we did see this effect in the in-vitro experiment.
Total root biomass of in-vitro roots decreased when roots were
connected to non-selfing fungal strains (one-way ANOVA:
F2,38= 5.396, p= 0.009). Specifically, total root
biomass was 1.5% lower when the partner root was inoculated with B12
and 11% lower when the partner root was inoculated with Agg (Fig. 5b).