<P> Mycorrhizal symbiosis between plants and fungi is one of the most well - known plant--fungus associations and is of significant importance for plant growth and persistence in many ecosystems; over 90% of all plant species engage in mycorrhizal relationships with fungi and are dependent upon this relationship for survival . </P> <P> The mycorrhizal symbiosis is ancient, dating to at least 400 million years ago . It often increases the plant's uptake of inorganic compounds, such as nitrate and phosphate from soils having low concentrations of these key plant nutrients . The fungal partners may also mediate plant - to - plant transfer of carbohydrates and other nutrients . Such mycorrhizal communities are called "common mycorrhizal networks". A special case of mycorrhiza is myco - heterotrophy, whereby the plant parasitizes the fungus, obtaining all of its nutrients from its fungal symbiont . Some fungal species inhabit the tissues inside roots, stems, and leaves, in which case they are called endophytes . Similar to mycorrhiza, endophytic colonization by fungi may benefit both symbionts; for example, endophytes of grasses impart to their host increased resistance to herbivores and other environmental stresses and receive food and shelter from the plant in return . </P> <P> Lichens are a symbiotic relationship between fungi and photosynthetic algae or cyanobacteria . The photosynthetic partner in the relationship is referred to in lichen terminology as a "photobiont". The fungal part of the relationship is composed mostly of various species of ascomycetes and a few basidiomycetes . Lichens occur in every ecosystem on all continents, play a key role in soil formation and the initiation of biological succession, and are prominent in some extreme environments, including polar, alpine, and semiarid desert regions . They are able to grow on inhospitable surfaces, including bare soil, rocks, tree bark, wood, shells, barnacles and leaves . As in mycorrhizas, the photobiont provides sugars and other carbohydrates via photosynthesis to the fungus, while the fungus provides minerals and water to the photobiont . The functions of both symbiotic organisms are so closely intertwined that they function almost as a single organism; in most cases the resulting organism differs greatly from the individual components . Lichenization is a common mode of nutrition for fungi; around 20% of fungi--between 17,500 and 20,000 described species--are lichenized . Characteristics common to most lichens include obtaining organic carbon by photosynthesis, slow growth, small size, long life, long - lasting (seasonal) vegetative reproductive structures, mineral nutrition obtained largely from airborne sources, and greater tolerance of desiccation than most other photosynthetic organisms in the same habitat . </P> <P> Many insects also engage in mutualistic relationships with fungi . Several groups of ants cultivate fungi in the order Agaricales as their primary food source, while ambrosia beetles cultivate various species of fungi in the bark of trees that they infest . Likewise, females of several wood wasp species (genus Sirex) inject their eggs together with spores of the wood - rotting fungus Amylostereum areolatum into the sapwood of pine trees; the growth of the fungus provides ideal nutritional conditions for the development of the wasp larvae . At least one species of stingless bee has a relationship with a fungus in the genus Monascus, where the larvae consume and depend on fungus transferred from old to new nests . Termites on the African savannah are also known to cultivate fungi, and yeasts of the genera Candida and Lachancea inhabit the gut of a wide range of insects, including neuropterans, beetles, and cockroaches; it is not known whether these fungi benefit their hosts . Fungi ingrowing dead wood are essential for xylophagous insects (e.g. woodboring beetles). They deliver nutrients needed by xylophages to nutritionally scarce dead wood . Thanks to this nutritional enrichment the larvae of woodboring insect is able to grow and develop to adulthood . The larvae of many families of fungicolous flies, particularly those within the superfamily Sciaroidea such as the Mycetophilidae and some Keroplatidae feed on fungal fruiting bodies and sterile mycorrhizae . </P>

Provide an example of an adaptation with the animal plant and fungi kingdoms