A plant Lysin Motif Receptor-Like Kinase plays an ancestral function in mycorrhiza.

Arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) with soilborne Glomeromycota fungi was pivotal in the conquest of land by plants almost half a billion years ago. In flowering plants, it is hypothesized that AM is initiated by the perception of AM fungi-derived chito- and lipochito-oligosaccharides (COs/LCOs) in the host via Lysin Motif Receptor-Like Kinases (LysM-RLKs). However, it remains uncertain whether plant perception of these molecules is a prerequisite for AM establishment and for its origin.