Yvet Boele

Introduction Many land plants rely on mutualistic symbiotic associations to thrive, starting with their common ancestor associating with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi (Rich et al., 2021). Similar to AM symbiosis, multiple other intracellular symbiotic interactions have evolved in land plants, such as ericoid symbiosis in the Ericaceae and root nodule symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the legumes and their relatives (Strullu-Derrien et al., 2018; Radhakrishnan et al., 2020).

Abstract Many land plants rely on mutualistic symbiotic associations to thrive, starting with their common ancestor associating with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. Similar to AM symbiosis, multiple other intracellular symbiotic interactions have evolved in a variety of land plants. Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) symbiosis contrasts with these relationships as there is no intracellular accommodation of the symbiont inside the plant cell, but only intercellular colonization.

Abstract Arabidopsis thalianas large native range across Eurasia and display of considerable genetic variation is key to its increasing use in eco-evolutionary studies. The structure and amount of this genetic variation has been studied on various geographic scales. On a continental scale, the genetic variation was postulated to follow an isolation by distance model, implying less genetic variation at smaller geographic distances.