Parasexual and Sexual Reproduction in Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi: Room for Both

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) harbor thousands of nuclei in a large syncytium at all times. Although mating processes have not been observed in AMF, their cells and genomes show many signatures of sexual reproduction. Here, we describe how some of these signatures could also arise from parasexual processes in these wide-spread plant symbionts. As such, parasexual and sexual evolution could both beat play in generating nuclear diversity in AMF.