Week 10 Briefing: Cold war and détente

Hyphal fusion between compatible fungal individuals against rejection between incompatible ones — the closest this course's vocabulary gets to literal.

Stained arbuscular mycorrhizal structures inside a plant root, with a 50 micrometre scale bar.

Rajarshi Rit · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Case file 10

Case file 10
Date
26 April 2027
Metaphor
Cold war and détente — sustained non-aggression punctuated by rare, careful cooperation
Phenomenon
Vegetative incompatibility (het-locus recognition) preventing hyphal fusion between incompatible fungal genets, versus fusion between compatible ones

Before the session

Read the assigned material on vegetative incompatibility. Bring a view on whether “détente” is more accurate here than any earlier week’s borrowed term, and why.

In the session

Compare this week’s fusion/rejection mechanism directly against week 7’s territorial antagonism — same border, finer-grained rule.

Afterwards

This is the week to test whether any of this course’s diplomatic vocabulary survives contact with an actual genetic mechanism, rather than standing in for one.

The spec

What you bring to the session. Written so a reader can tell whether it has been met without asking you.

Teaching team