Week 6 Briefing: Double agents
The Field Dispatch Briefing — the same fungal partner as mutualist to one host and exploiter of another, and the mechanisms that keep this in check.
Rajarshi Rit · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Case file 06
Case file 06- Date
- 29 March 2027
- Metaphor
- Double agents — the same actor mutualist on one front, exploitative on another
- Phenomenon
- Context- and partner-dependent shifts along the mutualism-parasitism continuum in mycorrhizal fungi, and the partner-sanctioning mechanisms that keep this in check
Before the session#
Bring your Field Dispatch case in draft: one documented fungal partner, identified across at least two different plant hosts or conditions, where its role shifts.
In the session#
Workshop drafts in pairs. The question for every draft: what specifically changes — light, nutrient status, host identity — and is that enough to call it a switch in loyalty, or just a switch in outcome?
Afterwards#
Field Dispatch is due this week — see the assessment page for the exact brief and marking.
The spec
What you bring to the session. Written so a reader can tell whether it has been met without asking you.
- you can name one factor that shifts a given fungal-plant pairing along the mutualism-parasitism continuum
- you can bring a specific, citable case for your Field Dispatch draft, not a general claim about fungi "sometimes" behaving this way
Teaching team
- Dr. Marguerite Osei — convenor
- Tobias Lindqvist — tutor