Fungi appear in the news with surprising frequency. However, many of those stories do not provide any new information. Below is a summary of news stories that have taught me something about fungi from September through December 2018. Read each summary to learn about: zombie ants, mushroom poisonings, White Nose Syndrome, Bananas, and more.

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With the growing concern over untrustworthy news sources and the media’s tendency to inaccurately report scientific studies, can these sources be trusted? Yes they can, with a bit of caution. I try my best to make sure all the articles based on scientific papers draw from peer-reviewed journals and that they accurately reflect the content of the papers. For articles not linked to scientific papers, I try to stick to sources with a good track record in reporting on science or to local sources for region-specific information. However, I encourage you to do your own research and decide for yourself whether these sources are trustworthy.

Yartsa Gunbu Threatened by Climate Change, Overharvesting

Yartsa Gunbu (Ophiocordyceps sinensis, FFF#066) is once again in the headlines over long-term supply fears.  The fungus, which infects caterpillars and sprouts out of their heads in the spring, lives only in a narrow band of the Himalayas.  The average temperature of this region has risen four degrees centigrade since the 1970’s, well ahead of the global average.  In theory, Yartsa Gunbu can adapt simply by moving up the slope of the mountains.  However, this also requires the caterpillars to move upslope, which requires the plants on which caterpillars feed to move upslope as well.  Even if all three partners manage to keep pace with a warming climate, they still have to contend with overharvesting.  Harvesters typically collect Yartsa Gunbu before it has a chance to release its spores, so intensive harvesting makes it difficult for C. sinensis to reproduce.  Yartsa Gunbu harvests are already on the decline due to overharvesting.  In order to create a sustainable industry, Yartsa Gunbu harvesters must take into account how much they harvest and take into account the changing climate.

Read more at: https://news.stanford.edu/2018/10/22/climate-change-overharvesting-may-doom-pricey-parasite/

Bionic Mushroom-Bacteria Energy Factory

What happens when you glue cyanobacteria and graphene ribbons onto a mushroom?  You get electricity, of course!  Cyanobacteria produce a small electric current while photosynthesizing in sunlight, and researchers have tried to harness this power for years.  Unfortunately, they do not survive well on their own.  This is where the mushroom comes in: an ordinary button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus, FFF#002) provides a perfect surface to keep the cyanobacteria alive.  Tiny graphene ribbons in special ink collect the current and connect to electrical wiring.  Currently, it would take several of these bionic mushrooms to power a small lamp.  With further research and some genetic engineering, the researchers hope to make cyanobacteria a viable source of electricity.

Read more at:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46127318

Transgenic Chestnuts Don’t Harm Wildlife

In the mid-1900’s, Chestnut Blight (Cryphonectria parasitica, FFF#222) essentially wiped out all American Chestnut trees and dramatically altered the makeup of eastern American forests.  Since then, researchers have been looking for ways to bring chestnuts back to the forests.  One method was to introduce a gene from wheat that negates the fungal toxins.  This resulted in healthy transgenic trees.  Now, researchers have examined the potential impacts of those trees on the environment.  Two studies examined the effects the transgenic tree had on leaf-eating insects, bees, germination of seeds from other plants, mycorrhizal fungi, and wood frog development.  No negative effects were observed in any of the experiments, suggesting that the trees will function normally in the ecosystem and not cause any harm.

Read more at: https://www.esf.edu/communications/view2.asp?newsID=7402

44,488 Known Fungal Species in North America

A checklist of North American fungal species was recently published in the journal Mycologia.  This list represents all fungal species that are known to live on the continent.  The final tally: 44,488.  Of course, this includes only named species; scientists estimate that less than one third of North American fungi have names.  At a time when DNA sequencing is beginning to be widely available and citizen science projects like the North American Mycoflora Project are kicking off, this checklist represents a useful baseline to gauge progress of efforts to catalogue all the continent’s species.  Only about 135,000 left to go!

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-11-north-american-checklist-fungus.html

Virginia Salamanders Resist Deadly Disease

The disease chytridiomycosis (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, FFF#157) has killed innumerable amphibians (especially frogs) across the globe.  Many efforts are underway to find methods to combat the disease and save vulnerable species.  Particular interest has been paid to resistant species.  Researchers in Virginia have identified ten salamanders inhabiting the Blue Ridge Mountains that are resistant to the fungus.  These species are likely resistant thanks to the bacteria living on their skin.  If researchers can figure out which bacteria are responsible and how the resistance works, it could lead to an effective treatment for the disease.

Read more at: https://wtop.com/virginia/2018/11/unbothered-by-deadly-fungus-salamanders-draw-researchers/

Nitric Oxide Controls C. albicans Aggressiveness

The fungus Candida albicans (FFF#162) is a yeast that lives harmlessly in most people.  However, it has the ability to switch growth modes to produce hyphae and aggressively invade human tissues.  This causes conditions such as thrush and “yeast infections,” and is especially problematic for people with weakened immune systems.  Researchers examining how C. albicans makes this switch used the compound mdivi-1 to freeze the fungus mid-transition.  This allowed them to study the inner workings that controlled the switch from yeast to hyphae.  The researchers discovered that C. albicans controlled this transition using nitric oxide.  With further study, this insight may provide a new way to attack the fungus.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-11-reveal-deadly-fungal-infection-shape-shifts.html

Original Humongous Fungus: Bigger, Older, and Genetically Stable

The first “Humongous Fungus” was discovered outside Crystal Falls, Michigan in 1992.  This single Amrillaria gallica fungus was found to cover 30 acres and scientists estimated it was about 1,500 years old (see FFF#001).  Since 1992, larger fungi have been found, but researchers recently decided to revisit the original to get more accurate data.  In the new analysis, the Crystal Falls fungus was found to cover 180 acres its age was estimated to be 2,500 years – the fungus was actually much larger and older than originally thought (it’s still not as big as the one in Oregon, though).  More surprisingly, researchers identified only 160 mutations in its cells.  Normally, as organisms grow new cells are produced and mistakes happen as DNA gets copied, resulting in mutations.  These mutations are usually benign but, in some cases, can cause problems like cancer.  The Crystal Falls fungus mutates at a rate of less than one mutation every ten years.  To put this in perspective, if human cells enjoyed this low mutation rate, we would accumulate at most ten mutations over the course of our lifetimes.  Cancer requires multiple mutations in the same cell, so a mutation rate this low would effectively eliminate cancer as a human disease.  It’s unclear how the fungus maintains such a low mutation rate, but this observation raises all kinds of interesting questions.

Read more at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/08/science/fungus-michigan-mutation.html