Mycology-response

G'day friends! I hope everyone had a great time contemplating the world of fungi. Maybe you had a chance to listen to this podcast or read the transcript of it online? If not, it is A-Okay, let's review some interesting learnings together with the understanding that THERE IS SO MUCH OUT THERE!!!! and we won't cover it all. I want to introduce to us the world of fungi and just share how inspiring their very existence is to me.....shall we get to it?

What the heck is fungi? (from Encyclopedia Britannica):

Fungus, plural fungi, any of about 144,000 known species of organisms of the kingdom Fungi, which includes the yeasts, rusts, smuts, mildews, molds, and mushrooms. There are also many funguslike organisms, including slime molds and oomycetes (water molds), that do not belong to kingdom Fungi but are often called fungi. Many of these funguslike organisms are included in the kingdom Chromista. Fungi are among the most widely distributed organisms on Earth and are of great environmental and medical importance. Many fungi are free-living in soil or water; others form parasitic or symbiotic relationships with plants or animals.

Okay, there is a pretty good start for us! So we know that fungi have their own kingdom! That is significant! Organisms on Earth have been classified using a taxonomic classification structure - which allows us to contemplate and discuss the relatedness or unrelatedness of all living things. The rankings go as follows:

-Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species Identifier

Here is a webpage with a great infographic for those visual learners (like myself).

When we look at these categories (especially using the infographic) we can see that Domains are broad categories (like, you and I both like stories). Kingdoms become furtherly specific (you and I both like to read), and so on and so forth until we get down to the species - at which point you begin to see much more specific and smaller groups of identifiers (you like to read comic books by Jules Lyons and I like to read French poems from the 1800s). What does it mean that fungi have their own kingdom? It means that they differ at an extremely fundamental level that separates them from other living things (translation, you like stories and I do not). Long ago, before fungi were fungi and before you were a discernable homo- sapien sapien, our genetic forebears began to differentiate from one another in such significant ways that what came after became seemingly COMPLETELY different things. Fungi's super great great grandmamas began digesting food externally while our super great great grandmamas processed nutrients within our cells.

Isn't this amazing? This one difference (albeit extremely significant), can produce such incredible diversity.

So, we've established that fungi are a living thing that have their own kingdom, but what does that REALLY MEAN? Well, in a basic sense, it means that they do not share a kingdom with plants or with animals! WHAAAAAAAAT? Look at some older sources and you will discover that we used to categorize fungi as plants, but with further learning, it has become clear that they have life processes unto themselves that are different enough from plants and animals - which entitle them to their own kingdom. What is it called? DRUMROLL!!!!!!! IT'S CALLED FUNGI! :) That will be pretty easy for us to remember and impress people with.

Most of us are familiar with MUSHROOMS, a fruiting body of some fungi - let's get to the bottom of where mushrooms begin and fungi end and all that. Not all fungi produce mushrooms. Even though the Latin word for mushroom is FUNGUS/FUNGI, we don't want to get trapped into thinking that where there is a fungus, there is a mushroom. Many fungi do fruit (as an apple tree produces an apple) - and the result of that fruiting is what we know of as a mushroom.

So, although only some fungi produce mushrooms, typically, most fungi do consist of branches and branches of filaments that are enclosed by a rigid cell wall. Imagine the root system of a tree for a visual reference. The branches themselves are called hyphae plurally and hypha singularly. This branching system usually exists underground or within an organic substrate (so, that could be in the bark of a tree or even within the corpse of a deceased animal) and expands outwardly in a radial or circulating pattern. That larger network of hyphae is collectively called the mycelium and the network of fibers in a mycelium can reach for a few inches to thousands of acers! The hyphae secrete enzymes into or onto the surrounding organic matter. The enzymes break down the polymers within this biomass - into smaller usable monomers. Imagine how you chew your food and then further digest it within your acid-packed stomach! Once these polymers are broken down, the mycelium absorbs the usable nutrients into itself. At a certain point of maturity, some fungi will produce small nodules upon the mycelium towards the surface of the substrate. The presence of oxygen and light are often signaling agents - which stimulate this growth (even though - as we remember - fungus does not photosynthesize). These nodules will grow into one of many types of mushrooms. If you take a mushroom and cut the stem or the cap and really look at it with a microscope - or your eyes even - you can see that its spongy mass is made up of many stringy bits - or filaments - or dense MYCELIUM!

Once you have a mushroom, which can take on many forms, the mushroom will reproduce using spores. Spores are in the air and in our food and in water. It's almost unnerving how EVERYWHERE they are! We're breathing them in, we're stepping on them, we're consuming them! Fungi spores are carried on the wind, on creatures, in the water - to their next meal basically. Once spores land they either cease to exist or (if they land on biomass that they can use for nutrients, they invest into that substrate and new hyphae are born, growing as trees do - at the tips of each filament - into a mycelium and the cycle continues. Some hyphae webs have existed (it is thought) for thousands of years. Older or injured parts of the mycelium will die and be absorbed into the substrate and the healthy mycelium can grow in perpetuity - so long as there is an existing form of nutrition available.

There are some fungi that do not use hyphae as their growth mechanism, but they grow as individual cells and bud or use fission to multiply. We see this in yeasts - which is why fungus in the form of yeasts in bread and wine- are not accompanied by stringy filaments. Side-bar: molds are fungi that grow using hyphae (I told you this is complicated!) :)

So, why are fungi important? If we consider the process through which fungi break down biomass to produce usable nutrients for their own growth, we can infer one of their prime roles in upholding a healthy ecosystem - and that is as principle recyclers. Along with bacteria and other essential ecological stakeholders, fungi break down organic material, releasing vital nutrients into the soil and atmosphere.

Without fungi and bacteria, worms, nematodes, snails etc, nutrient cycling would not happen. It is this nutrient cycling that offers the environment (most directly - plants) with soluble nutrients that can be absorbed through root systems. Fungi are master decomposers that can break down tough organic materials such as cellulose and lignin (organic materials that give plants their rigidity and structure) - as well as proteins. Once broken down, these nutrients are soluble through root structures of plants - thanks fungi et al!!!!!!! Their ability to do this places fungi in a key synergistic role - where they rely upon the presence of organic matter and they are simultaneously relied upon to produce and introduce usable energy back into their ecosystems.

It is untrue that fungi do not thrive in light; it happens that much dead biomatter exists in low-light areas. Most fungi do thrive at temperatures between 68-80 deg. F. There are, however, what are known as thermophilic fungi and frost molds, which thrive outside of this comfy temperature - and break the mold (get it?).

There is so much more to fungi than all of this! The ways in which fungi grow, reproduce, decompose etc - is far more complicated than we have learned here! The medicinal uses of fungi are not all new to us and more recently - studies are being funded to understand their use in the arena of human health.

Our view of fungi as HELPFUL is also a point-of-view limited to particular instances in which we ourselves benefit environmentally from their presence. Some fungi could be deemed as invasive or detrimental to certain plants or animals - if they use those plants/animals as their host and siphon nutrition from a living host rather than from dead organic matter. From the 'point of view' of the mushroom, this is pretty awesome; from our point of view, this can be devastating or harmful, economically straining or 'sad.'

As we go forth and learn more about fungi and about other interesting stakeholders in our natural world, let us keep our perspectives in check by considering the many points of view we can learn about in assessing any topic.

FAVORITE MUSHROOM?: My new favorite mushroom is the Lion's Mane mushroom. I found some at the farmer's market last week! It is oh so spongy that when I went to cook it up, I couldn't even cut it as it just squished beneath the sharp blade. It is easy to see the thousands of filaments in this mushroom - as they gather and branch, though to see a singular filament, I suspect a microscope is certainly in order.

So, we've gone over the most basic aspects of fungi, how they grow, how they get nutrition, and their importance in Earth's ecosystem - as great recyclers/composters! We mentioned other great recyclers too and know that this role is vital for the plant kingdom to access usable nutrients (and the plant kingdom is essential for herbivores who are essential for carnivores and so on and so forth). We know that mushrooms aren't part of the life cycle of every fungus, and we know that fungi are super darn cool! I can't wait to explore nutrient recycling more with you guys! Think about what has really struck you this week in this vast topic of fungi and nutrient cycling and ecosystem management - and let's continue our conversation!

~Sarah