All articles tagged with #fungi
Edible mushroom Lanmaoa asiatica reportedly triggers vivid lilliputian visions (3–30 cm tall) that interact with the physical world. Researchers doubt cultural conditioning explains the effect and suspect a new psychedelic compound is involved; the mushroom was identified via DNA sequencing by University of Utah doctoral student Colin Domnauer, and the team plans to isolate and characterize the compound.
Swedish researchers mapped fairy rings of Marasmius oreades, showing the underground mycelium forms a ring with DNA concentrated at the outer edge and experiments supporting a transient-escape mechanism that drives outward growth; the work in Uppsala and published in Royal Society Open Science (2026) remains preliminary but sheds light on how these circular fungal patterns form.
Fungi challenge aging conventions because they grow as indeterminate, modular mycelial networks, making it unclear when a fungus begins, ends, or how old it is across species. A Trends in Microbiology paper proposes starting points like genetic tracking, mycelial genomics, and future technologies (e.g., fungi-on-a-chip) to begin measuring fungal age and guide systematic study.
University of Michigan researchers sampled water from 500 meters below ground and identified 689 fungal species (13 new), plus tardigrades and worms, in a thriving deep subterranean ecosystem that may influence carbon release and storage in shale, challenging the assumption that deep subsurface carbon is inert and prompting a rethink of carbon cycling models.
Scientists analyzing water pumped from the Antrim Shale gas field uncovered a surprisingly rich subterranean ecosystem, including 689 fungal species (13 potentially new), rotifers, worms, tardigrades and other organisms. Fungi from classes Agaricomycetes and Dothideomycetes appear to metabolize hard-to-digest carbon, suggesting a significant role in subsurface carbon cycling. The oxygen conditions are unclear due to sampling methods, but the community has likely been isolated for millennia since the Late Pleistocene. Human extraction and biocides threaten these habitats, highlighting their biodiversity and potential impact on carbon storage models.
A University of Michigan study of water brought up from the Antrim Shale beneath Michigan found surprisingly rich life in deep underground groundwater: one drop contained about 250 fungal cells and 689 fungal species (13 new), plus tardigrades (water bears) and tiny segmented worms, indicating an active underground food web and potential importance for Earth's carbon cycle. Isotope data suggest the ancient water last contacted surface about 11,000 years ago, and researchers are cultivating deep-subsurface fungi and developing tools to study these hidden ecosystems further.
Researchers drilling into the Antrim Shale beneath the Great Lakes found a vibrant underground ecosystem: 689 fungal species (including 13 new ones) alongside tardigrades and worms, forming a subterranean food web fed by ancient organic matter. Isotopic dating links the water to the Ice Age, last in contact with surface about 11,000 years ago, suggesting deep subsurface biodiversity may be underestimated and could influence carbon cycling.
A University of Michigan team found 689 fungal species living in water 1,640 feet beneath Michigan, where the liquid dates back to 11,000 years ago as glacial melt carried surface organisms into the Antrim Shale; the underground ecosystem also hosts tardigrades and worms and may reshape understanding of carbon cycling and potential environmental cleanup applications.
A global team mapped the underground mycorrhizal network, estimating about 110 quadrillion kilometers of fungal filaments and 300 megatons of carbon; these networks transfer roughly 4 billion tonnes of CO2 into soil each year (about 11% of human-emitted CO2) and support ~70% of plant species. The map, produced from 322 studies and 16,000 soil samples using machine learning and advanced imaging, shows that natural ecosystems host denser networks than agricultural lands, with grasslands holding a large share of biomass. Widespread habitat loss could weaken soil carbon storage and nutrient cycling, highlighting fungi as a planetary circulatory system.
A dark melanized fungus, Cladosporium sphaerospermum, thriving inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone, may exploit ionizing radiation for energy via a proposed radiosynthesis process powered by melanin. While the fungus grows better in radiation and has shown to attenuate radiation in an ISS exposure test, scientists have not proven a real energy-harvesting mechanism or carbon fixation, and the phenomenon is not universal among melanized fungi.
A new study shows that the evolution of multicellularity in microbes is closely linked to large expansions in specialized metabolite production. Unicellular lineages generally harbor few biosynthetic gene clusters, whereas multicellular groups in bacteria (Cyanobacteriota, Myxococcota, Actinomycetota) and fungi (Pezizomycotina, Agaricomycetes) exhibit ancestral increases in BGC content alongside multicellular development and self-recognition traits. These lineages also harbor enriched carbohydrate-active enzymes, suggesting energy from complex catabolic processes fuels metabolite production, aligning with a public-goods framework and offering a path for discovering novel antimicrobial compounds while illuminating major evolutionary transitions.
Researchers mapped the world’s underground mycorrhizal network, estimating about 68 quadrillion miles (110 quadrillion km) of fungal hyphae that connect around 70% of Earth’s plants. The network boosts plant access to water, nutrients, and soil carbon exchange, and it is densest under wild grasslands rather than rainforests. Farmland shows about half the density, highlighting how agricultural practices affect these hidden connections and offering new avenues for conservation and farming methods that protect this vast, climate-relevant web.
UC Riverside researchers found fungi inside desert moss tissues, including arbuscule-like structures, suggesting a potential mycorrhizal relationship not previously documented in mosses; if confirmed, it could reshape ideas about moss biology and the early evolution of land plants, with implications for dryland restoration—though a true symbiosis has not yet been proven.
Scientists mapped underground fungal networks and found they total about 62 quadrillion miles in length within the top 15 cm of soil; the new interactive map shows hotspots in grasslands and wetlands and aims to protect fungi as part of conservation efforts, noting that dense networks support plant nutrition and carbon storage while intensive agriculture reduces hyphae density; more than 8,000 fungal species are known, but most have not been assessed for endangerment.
Scientists mapped the planet’s underground fungal networks—dominated by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi—using 16,000 soil samples and a machine‑learning model, estimating about 110 quadrillion kilometers of hyphae that underpin nutrient and water exchange, climate regulation, and the carbon cycle. The global fungal biomass is roughly 300 megatons, with around 70% supporting most ground‑level plant life and 40% concentrated in high‑altitude or flooded grasslands. Density is lower in cropland soils, underscoring the need to protect grasslands and other ecosystems that host these hidden networks.