An ancient soil fungus supplies nitrogen and phosphorus to Arabidopsis, a plant thought closed to fungi

Two methods carry the claim. Cell imaging shows where the fungus sits in the root, and multi-isotope tracing follows what moves between the partners ^[5]. Colonization alone would not make a symbiosis, so the tracing is the result that counts: nitrogen and phosphorus went from the soil through the fungal network and into the shoots ^[6].

The carbon figure needs a baseline. The fungal network received more than 260% more plant-fixed carbon in return ^[6], and the Phys.org summary does not say what the 260% is measured against.

The plant's side of the trade is harder to read. The fungus colonized roots without affecting plant growth ^[5]. The thing this doesn't tell you is whether a crop would grow better, yield more or need less fertilizer for hosting the fungus.

Arabidopsis is the primary genetic model in plant biology, not a crop ^[1]. The case for crops is an argument at the level of the family. Mustard-family plants lost genes for parts of the common symbiosis signaling pathway ^[4], and the authors say MFREs bypass that pathway ^[9]. Earlier attempts to force fungal partnerships were largely unsuccessful, and scientists concluded the route was closed ^[7]. If the bypass holds across the family, that conclusion would not apply to crop relatives. In our view that is a reasonable hypothesis, and this paper does not test it.

Field is more guarded than the headline on the Phys.org piece. She said the discovery "raises the tantalizing possibility that we've been overlooking an important source of natural support for plants, including some of our most important crops," ^[10]. Professor Jurriaan Ton put the application as a conditional: "taking this symbiosis from the lab to the field could offer a nature-based way to improve crop nutrition and resilience," he said ^[12].

The paper is by James Prout and colleagues, with Field leading the work, in Current Biology (DOI 10.1016/j.cub.2026.09.061) ^[3][8].