MODEL RELEASED. Plant-fungi research. Researcher studying the genetic material of an arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus. The sheet on the lightbox is a chromatographic analysis of the genetic components. In this fungus, each spore contains between 2000 and 5000 nuclei that can move along the hyphae. In these fungi each nucleus has a different genetic composition. Extensive underground networks of these fungi connect the roots of different plants, and are essential for the uptake of soil nutrients and their transfer to the host plants.