Fungal Bug Farming

The thick-footed morel built a farming venture on the Pseudomonas putida bacteria. This morel cultivates the bacteria by producing compounds that help the strain grow.

When conditions favor storage of resources, the morel "harvests" the bacteria and transfers carbon compounds from bacteria to the fungi. The fungi then stores this carbon in structures called sclerotia; essentially a "grain silo" to draw from when resources grow scarce.

The bacteria are "planted" by the fungus far and wide using it's fungal hyphae as a highway to disperse the bacteria to new growing areas expanding the fungal farm endeavor.