Despite host-fungal symbiotic interactions being ubiquitous in all ecosystems, understanding how symbiosis has shaped the ecology and evolution of fungal spores that are involved in dispersal and colonization of their hosts has been ignored in life-history studies. We assembled a spore morphology database covering over 26,000 species of free-living to symbiotic fungi of plants, insects and humans and found more than eight orders of variation in spore size. Evolutionary transitions in symbiotic status correlated with shifts in spore size, but the strength of this effect varied widely among phyla. Symbiotic status explained more variation than climatic variables in the current distribution of spore sizes of plant-associated fungi at a global scale while the dispersal potential of their spores is more restricted compared to free-living fungi. Our work advances life-history theory by highlighting how the interaction between symbiosis and offspring morphology shapes the reproductive and dispersal strategies among living forms.

AGHYLE Research Unit Institut Polytechnique UniLaSalle Mont Saint Aignan France

Berlin Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research Berlin Germany

Biology Department Oberlin College and Conservatory Oberlin Ohio USA

Center for Macroecology Evolution and Climate GLOBE Institute University of Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark

College of Life Sciences Hebei University Baoding China

College of Resources and Environmental Sciences China Agricultural University Beijing People's Republic of China

Departamento de Ecología Universidad de Alicante Carretera de San Vicente del Raspeig s n Alicante Spain

Department of Agricultural Sciences University of Helsinki Helsinki Finland

Department of Biological and Environmental Science University of Jyväskylä Jyvaskyla Finland

Department of Biology University of Miami Coral Gables Florida USA

Department of Ecology and Evolution University of Tennessee Knoxville Tennessee USA

Department of Environmental Studies Dartmouth College Hanover New Hampshire USA

Department of Music Art and Culture Studies University of Jyväskylä Jyvaskyla Finland

Departments of Botany and Bacteriology University of Wisconsin Madison Madison Wisconsin USA

Evogene Department of Biosciences University of Oslo Oslo Norway

Evolution and Ecology Research Center School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences University of New South Wales Sydney New South Wales Australia

Faculty of Biological Sciences Department of Conservation Biology Institute for Ecology Evolution and Diversity Goethe University Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main Germany

Global Centre for Land Based Innovation Western Sydney University Penrith New South Wales Australia

Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment Western Sydney University Penrith New South Wales Australia

Institute of Biology Freie Universität Berlin Berlin Germany

Instituto Multidisciplinar para el Estudio del Medio Ramon Margalef Universidad de Alicante Carretera de San Vicente del Raspeig s n Alicante Spain

Key Laboratory of Agro ecological Processes in Subtropical Region and Changsha Research Station for Agricultural and Environmental Monitoring Institute of Subtropical Agriculture Chinese Academy of Sciences Hunan China

Laboratorio de Biodiversidad y Funcionamiento Ecosistémico Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla CSIC Sevilla Spain

Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences Praha 4 Czech Republic

Oceans and Atmosphere CSIRO Hobart Tasmania Australia

School of Resource Wisdom University of Jyväskylä Jyvaskyla Finland

State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology Research Center for Eco Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing People's Republic of China

Unidad Asociada CSIC UPO Universidad Pablo de Olavide Sevilla Spain

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing People's Republic of China

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