Kansas will test whether mycorrhizal fungi help wheat and rice withstand drought

Funding a research question

On 18 September 2026, the University of Kansas announced a $1.9 million grant from the US National Science Foundation. The work will examine selected soil fungi for their potential to improve drought tolerance in wheat and rice. This is an announcement of research, without a finished agricultural recipe or a demonstrated percentage increase in crop yield from fungal inoculation.

That distinction matters when reading about microorganisms in farming. A proposed application explains why research receives funding; experiments establish whether the expected effect actually occurs. The grant itself is not an experimental result.

What mycorrhiza contributes

The INVAM collection's overview describes arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi as partners that colonise plant roots and extend hyphae into the surrounding rhizosphere. Arbuscules are branching structures involved in the interface between fungus and root cells. Benefits can concern nutrition, plant physiology and ecological processes. These fungi also contribute to soil stability.

This group should not be confused with every fungus found near a plant. The term describes a particular association and structures formed within roots. Selecting an experimental partner therefore requires more than collecting an arbitrary handful of soil.

A collection that must stay alive

INVAM's institutional history begins with Norman Schenck, who obtained NSF funding for a living culture collection in 1985. Following his retirement, material moved from Florida to West Virginia University. In 2021, NSF supported the collection's transition to Kansas. Its purpose is to preserve, characterise and distribute fungal material for further work.

This infrastructure lets researchers return to a documented culture and compare experiments using traceable material. A living collection is therefore more than a catalogue of names: it must retain fungi capable of continued growth, while keeping their identities and histories attached to them.

Why the starting material matters

INVAM's accession rules illustrate the practical work involved. Raw field soil is not accepted for culture development because it can introduce contaminants. Deposited material should have passed through at least one pot-culture cycle, contain one fungal species and be free of contamination. Documentation enters the collection database alongside the culture.

These procedures provide useful context for the new project. The broad question of whether fungi help during drought needs to become a comparison of specified partners under specified conditions. Only then can an effect associated with the fungus be distinguished from differences in the plant, substrate or experimental setup. A promising symbiosis is a reason to investigate, while a recommendation for growers requires the results of that investigation. The September announcement opens that process rather than settling the question of effectiveness.