Dr Jennifer McGaley explains how her 56-hour marathon at the microscope has opened up the mysterious life of fungi with the first-ever time-lapse of the symbiosis between plants and beneficial soil fungi.
What if one organism could copy itself, merge with others, and weave vast living networks through its environment? These abilities may seem alien, but they're actually not so distant. Meet the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi beneath your feet
Dr Jennifer McGaley, Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Cereal Symbiosis group, has filmed these fungi in action for the first time. After decades of seeing in static, researchers can witness fungi in full flow.
It took Dr McGaley 56 hours to produce a continuous time-lapse. She divided the marathon with her student Ben Schneider, taking shifts at the microscope for 45 minutes at a time, then sneaking in a quick nap before the next interval.
In stringing together the images, Dr McGaley became the first person to see mycorrhiza in motion at a sub-cellular level.
“It was exhilarating," Dr McGaley says. “Focusing at 3am was tough for sure. But stringing together the images of these beautiful, intricate structures into a film was mind-blowing.
“Until now, these lives have been hidden from us. It's only in the last few years that we can image the fungi without killing them in the process.”
Read the interview with Dr Jennifer McGaley: Mycorrhiza in motion
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Top image: Dr Jennifer McGaley. Credit: Jonathan Settle / University of Cambridge.