Speaker Biography

Alastair Fitter

Alastair Fitter is Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Professor of Ecology at the University of York.Â His research focusses on the interactions between roots and mycorrhizal fungi, and the role that these play in carbon cycling and community structure.Â He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Past President of the British Ecological Society, a member of NERC Council and an editor of the journal New Phytologist.

Abstract: A forgotten phylum?

Alastair Fitter, University of York, UK

The Glomeromycota have only recently been recognised as a distinct phylum in the Fungi and have yet to receive sufficient attention from mycologists. Historically they have been investigated to a greater extent by plant scientists because of their central role in plant nutrition. Consequently we know little about basic aspects of their biology, such as the genetic system that regulates maintenance of diversity, the nutritional and developmental controls that determine why they are obligate biotrophs and cannot be grown in pure culture, and the spatial structure of their populations that determines their biogeography and therefore whether there are rare or even perhaps endangered species in the group. These are very fundamental gaps in knowledge and they seriously hamper our understanding and our ability to exploit or manage a group of fungi that may play a key role in sustainable agriculture and the conservation of biodiversity. A major step forward is the recent progress in the description of the Glomus intraradices genome, which offers potential insights into many of these lacunae. I will ask why our knowledge is so poor, describe some recent findings that challenge conventional views, and consider possible avenues of research.