Daniel Molter (University of Utah)
This paper argues that a plant together with the symbiotic fungus attached to its roots (a mycorrhizal collective) functions as one evolutionary individual, regardless of whether the symbionts reproduce together as a unit or propagate independently. I first show that a mycorrhizal collective functions as an interactor according to David Hull's replicator-interactor model of evolution by natural selection. I next argue that the potential to engage in pseudo-vertical transmission is sufficient to make a mycorrhizal collective function as a reproducing Darwinian individual, according to Peter Godfrey-Smith's Darwinian Populations model of evolution by natural selection.
