[ **up: [[Eukaryotes]]** ] --- # Fungi / Fungi (Kingdom) [[“Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel and behave. Yet they live their lives largely hidden from view, and more than 90 per cent of their species remain undocumented.”|“Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel and behave. Yet they live their lives largely hidden from view, and more than 90 per cent of their species remain undocumented.”]][^1] > “From deep sediments on the sea floor, to the surface of deserts, to frozen valleys in Antarctica, to our guts and orifices, there are few pockets of the globe where fungi can’t be found.”[^2] > “Whether in forests, labs or kitchens, fungi have changed my understanding of how life happens. These organisms make questions of our categories and thinking about them makes the world look different.”[^3] --- ## Taxonomy - **[[Life (Biology)]]** - **[[Eukaryotes|Eukaryota (Domain)]]** - [[Fungi|Fungi (Kingdom)]] - [[Hypocreales (Order)]] - [[Ophiocordyceps (Genus)]] - [[Caterpillar fungus|Ophiocordyceps sinsensis]] - [[Ophiocordyceps unilateralis]] --- Scientists classify fungi into four groups. ### Endophytic fungi + **endophytic fungi** (tiny fungi living inside a host plant’s tissue and cells; although they invade hosts like parasites, unlike parasites they cause neither damage nor disease; furthermore, unlike mycorrhizal fungi, they are easy to cultivate without a host).[^4] --- ### Saprotrophic fungi - **saprotrophic fungi** (external digestion—obtain their nutrients by decomposing dead and decaying organic matter).[^5] --- ### Mycorrhizal fungi *Mycorrhizal* comes from the Greek words for ‘fungus’ (*mykes*) and ‘roots’ (*rhiza*).[^6] Noted for their relationship with plants/trees.[^7] their “underground mycelial network” (also known as the [[Fungi#‘World Wide Wood’|Wood Wide Web]][^6]) allows them to interact with roots.[^7] [[The future of all “recognisable life on land ... depends on the continued ability of plants and fungi to form healthy relationships.”|The future of all “recognisable life on land ... depends on the continued ability of plants and fungi to form healthy relationships.”]][^8] > “In well-developed ecosystems soil would be rapidly sluiced off by rain were it not for the dense mesh of fungal tissue that holds it together.”[^9] > “Tens to hundreds of species \[of fungi] can live in the leaves and stems of a single plant. These fungi weave themselves through the gaps between plant cells in an intimate brocade and help to defend plants against disease. No plant grown under natural conditions has been found without these fungi; they are as much a part of planthood as leaves or roots.”[^10] > “The relationships between plants and mycorrhizal fungi are key to understanding how ecosystems work.”[^11] --- ### Parasitic fungi - **parasitic fungi** (external digestion—obtain their nutrients in/from living organisms).[^5] > “The largest group is saprotrophic fungi, followed by parasitic fungi, then mycorrhizal fungi, and, lastly, the endophytes.”[^5] --- ## Reproduction ### Spores [[“Fungi use spores like plants use seeds _ to disperse themselves.”|“Fungi use spores like plants use seeds: to disperse themselves.”]][^12] #### Spore dispersal Some fungi produce their spores in [[Mushrooms|mushrooms]], the “[[“Mushrooms dominate the popular fungal imagination, but just as the fruits of plants are one part of a much larger structure that includes branches and roots, so mushrooms are only the fruiting bodies of fungi, the place where spores are produced.”|fruiting bodies of fungi]]”.[^13] However, not all fungi use the mushroom method of dispersal: “the overwhelming majority of fungal species release spores without producing mushrooms at all.”[^14] > “Some species discharge spores explosively, which accelerate 10,000 times faster than a Space Shuttle directly after launch, reaching speeds of up to a hundred kilometres per hour — some of the quickest movements achieved by any living organism.”[^15] > “Other species of fungi create their own microclimates: spores are carried upwards by a current of wind generated by mushrooms as water evaporates from their gills.”[^16] > “Fungi produce around fifty megatonnes of spores each year — equivalent to the weight of 500,000 blue whales — making them the larges source of living particles in the air.”[^17] ##### Influence on the weather > “Spores are found in clouds and influence the weather by triggering the formation of the water droplets that form rain, and ice crystals that form snow, sleet and hail.”[^18] ### Other methods (not spores) #### Budding into two > “Some fungi, like the yeasts that ferment sugar into alcohol and cause bread to rise, consist of single cells that multiply by budding into two.”[^19] --- ### Hyphae > “… most fungi form networks of many cells known as hyphae (pronounced *HY-fee*): fine tubular structures that branch, fuse and tangle into the anarchic filigree of mycelium.”[^20] Hyphae make mycelium. They also make “more specialised structures” like [[Mushrooms|mushrooms]].[^21] #### Mycelium > “Mycelium describes the most common of fungal habits, better thought of not as a thing, but as a process — an exploratory, irregular tendency.”[^22] > “The mycelium of some fungal species is electrically excitable and conducts waves of electrical activity along hyphae, analogous to the electrical impulses in animal nerve cells.”[^23] --- ### Mating types > “Some fungi have tends of thousands of mating types, approximately equivalent to our sexes.”[^24] > “The mycelium of many fungi can fuse with other mycelial networks if they are genetically similar enough, even if they aren’t sexually compatible. Fungal self-identity matters, but it is not always a binary world. Self can shade off into otherness gradually.”[^25] --- ## Fungi–Everything relationship > “… a group of plants that produced a certain group of chemicals in their leaves. Until then, the chemicals had been thought of as a defining characteristic of that group of plants. However, it transpired that the chemicals were actually made by fungi that lived in the leaves of the plant. Our idea of the plant had to be redrawn. Another researcher interjected, suggesting that it may not be the fungi living inside the leaf that produced these chemicals, but the bacteria living inside the fungus.”[^26] ### Terraforming/Soil creating [[“To this day, new ecosystems on land are founded by fungi.”|“To this day, new ecosystems on land are founded by fungi.”]][^27] - *See also:* [[Lichens]] ### ‘Wood Wide Web’ [[“Without this fungal web my tree would not exist. Without similar fungal webs no plant would exist anywhere.”|“Without this fungal web my tree would not exist. Without similar fungal webs no plant would exist anywhere.”]][^28] [[“Without this fungal web my tree would not exist. Without similar fungal webs no plant would exist anywhere.”|“All life on land, including my own, depended on these networks. I tugged lightly on my root and felt the ground move.”]][^29] #### Fungi–Humans [[“Romans prayed to the god of mildew, Robigus, to avert fungal diseases but weren’t able to stop the famines that contributed to the decline of the Roman Empire.”]][^30] ##### Yeast “Microscopic yeasts are fungi”.[^31] --- ## *Armillaria* - Among the largest organisms in the world.[^32] > “The current record holder, in Oregon, weighs hundreds of tonnes, spills across 10 square kilometres, and is somewhere between 2,000 and 8,000 years old.”[^33] --- ## Terraforming/Soil creating [[“To this day, new ecosystems on land are founded by fungi.”|“To this day, new ecosystems on land are founded by fungi.”]][^27] - *See also:* [[Lichens]] --- ## Unexpected adaptations/uses ### Ink - *See:* [[Shaggy ink cap mushrooms]] ## Medicine ### Moulds [[Researchers have found that a Neanderthal “with a dental abscess had been eating a type of fungus, a penicillin-producing mould, imply knowledge of its antibiotic properties.”]][^34] [[“The indigenous peoples of Australia treated wounds with moulds harvested from the shaded side of eucalyptus trees.”]][^35] [[“The Jewish Talmud features a mould cure known as ‘chamka’, consisting of mouldy corn soaked in date wine.”]][^36] [[“Ancient Egyptian papyruses from 1500 BCE refer to the curative properties of mould …”]][^37] [[In 1640, the King's herbalist in London “described the use of moulds to treat wounds.”]][^38] [[The discovery of penicillin “arguably helped to shift the balance of power in the Second World War.”]][^39] ### Mushrooms [[“On the day he died, the Iceman was carrying a pouch stuffed with wads of the tinder fungus that he almost certainly used to make fire, and carefully prepared fragments of the birch polypore mushrooms most probably used as a medicine.”]][^40] #### General list of medicine made of fungi - [[Penicillin|penicillin]]. - **cyclosporine** (immunosuppressant; makes organ transplants possible).[^41] - **cholesterol-lowering statins**.[^42] - “a host of powerful antiviral and anti-cancer compounds”.[^43] - [[Alcohol|alcohol]]. - [[Psilocybin|psilocybin]]. --- ### Industry > “Sixty per cent of the enzymes used in industry are generated by fungi …”[^44] --- ### Nuclear waste removal > “A species isolated from mining waste is one of the most radiant-resistant organisms ever discovered, and may help clean up nuclear waste sites.”[^45] --- ## External resources - [Index Fungorum](http://www.indexfungorum.org/): names of fungi (including yeasts, lichens, chromistan fungal analogues, protozoan fungal analogues and fossil forms), plus publication where the name was first published. + [Mycobank](https://www.mycobank.org/): pretty much another version of above. Provides more external links to other places documenting the fungi you’ve searched. [^1]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 3. [^2]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 5. [^3]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 15. [^4]: Adam Sayner, ‘What Are Endophytic Fungi? Everything You Need to Know’, *GroCycle*, retrieved 21 April 2024, https://grocycle.com/endophytic-fungi/ [^5]: Adam Sayner, ‘The Ultimate Guide to Parasitic Mushrooms’, *GroCycle*, retrieved 20 April 2024, https://grocycle.com/parasitic-mushrooms/ [^6]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 4. [^7]: Adam Sayner, ‘The Ultimate Guide to Mycorrhizal Mushrooms’, *GroCycle*, retrieved 20 April 2024, https://grocycle.com/mycorrhizal-mushrooms/ [^8]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 4. [^9]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 5. [^10]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 5. [^11]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 13. [^12]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 5. [^13]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 5. [^14]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 6. [^15]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 6. [^16]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 6. [^17]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 6. [^18]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 6. [^19]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 6. [^20]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), pp. 6–7. [^21]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 7. [^22]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 7. [^23]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 7. [^24]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 39. [^25]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 39. [^26]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 18 [^27]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), pp. 4–5. [^28]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 2. [^29]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 2. [^30]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 8. [^31]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 3. [^32]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 4. [^33]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 4. [^34]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 9. [^35]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 9. [^36]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 9. [^37]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 9. [^38]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 9. [^39]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 10. [^40]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 9. [^41]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 10. [^42]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 10. [^43]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 10. [^44]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 10. [^45]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 5.