Fungus, typically when I say that word you think of the stuff that grows under your toenails.
It gets a bad rap as being slimy, gross, or infectious. Okay yes, it can be all those
things, but fungus is actually really cool.
Hey guys Julia here for DNews
Fungus is a group of organisms separate from all other life on earth. It’s in a weird
kingdom of it’s own, neither plant nor animal nor bacteria. It’s actually more closely
related to animals than plants. It includes things like mold, yeast, and of course mushrooms.
While they may be a totally different kingdom, their existence is intertwined with other
organisms, nearly all plants have some sort of symbiotic relationship with fungus.
So it’s a shame they get a lot of hate. Fungus is great! Mycologist Paul Stamets calls
the underground network of fungus "nature's Internet" It connects lots of plants that
can exchange the nutrients they need. Fungus also plays vital roles in decomposition and
might even be the key to saving the bees and treating disease!
A recent study published in the journal Current Biology found that the Brazilian Bee needs
a type of fungus to survive. Researchers noticed a white fuzzy fungus growing in a colony.
At first they thought it was invasive, but then they noticed all 30 of their hives
had the fuzz. So they did what researchers do, they did some science.
In their experiments, they raised a group of bee larva in an environment with the fungus
and a group without the fungus. They found that the survival rate of those larva with
the fungus was 72%.... without… the survival rate dropped to just 8%. It became clear the
bees need the fungus to survive.
It either provides nutrients or keeps food for the larva from spoiling. But what’s
more interesting, is that when bees leave the hive to start their own colony they take
part of the fungus with them. The researchers call it a kind of “proto-farming”.
One of the researchers said ““Given the substantial diversity of bees, many of which
are poorly studied, it is likely that other bees engage in similar associations,”
And they aren’t alone. Mycologist Paul Stamets is a man on a mission. He’s determined to
save as many genomes of species of fungus in the Pacific Northwest as possible. He believes
that "The rainforests of the Pacific Northwest may harbor mushroom species with profound
medicinal properties”. But with climate change and clear cutting of forests species
of fungus might be disappearing before we can find them, taking their medicinal secrets
with them.
He also believes that fungus holds the answer to the massive bee die off known as colony
collapse disorder. If you want to learn more about the bee die off check out a video we
did a while ago, there’s a link in the description. Besides what we talk about in that video,
many bee keepers find that little parasite called the the varroa mite could be responsible.
The mite carries viruses and it’s the virus that can destroy entire colonies in just a
few short years.
Stamets of course thinks that fungus is the answer, that an overuse of antifungal agents
used to treat crops actually damages the fungus that colonies need. Early research by Stamets
and a beekeeper show evidence that fungus helps bees by attacking the things that make
them sick. They found that a type of fungus that usually eats up wood, reduces viruses
in the bees! And another fungus could kill the mites directly! So yay!
But it’s not just bees that fungus helps. Stamets already found several strains of fungus
that could turn into life saving medicine. After all one of the most revolutionary drugs
of all time, the antibiotic penicillin, came from a fungus. Stamets found several strains
of a fungus called agarikon might have resistance to certain illnesses like TB, smallpox, and
and the flu according to analyses by the University of Illinois-Chicago's Institute for Tuberculosis
Research and the University of Mississippi.
So the next time you go and hate on fungus, just remember, it might save your life some
day.
So that’s just slice of the story of fungus. If you’d like to tell your own story you
should look into getting a domain name for you’re own webpage. No domain extension
will help you tell your story like a DOT COM or DOT NET domain name. And because you watch
DNews, you can get 15% off Domain Dot Com’s names and web hosting by using the code DNews
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Alright alright i know, i can’t talk about fungus and mushrooms without mentioning magic
mushrooms. Tara’s got the whole story in this episode, right here.