Fungi Call Oil Paintings, Potato Chips Home Sweet Home | Smart News

Mushrooms are perhaps the most well-known mushroom species, but the versatile biological reign encompasses much more than these delicate delicacies. In fact, Damian Carrington reports for The GuardianScientists have identified only 144,000 of the estimated 2.2 to 3.8 million species worldwide, leaving 90% to discover.

This statistic is just one of the ideas offered by new report from Great Britain Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The full investigation, titled State of the mushrooms in the worldis the first of its kind and reveals a unique aspect of organizations, Kew's Scientific Director, Kathy Willis call the environmental equivalent of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

As Carrington notes, about 90% of plants need mushroom support to survive. Humans also depend on fungi, which are an essential part of drugs such as penicillin.

Yet, the body has a darker side, similar to that of Hyde: BBC NewsHelen Briggs writes that mushrooms are capable of devastating trees, crops and other plant varieties, as well as damage to amphibian species.

"Their ability to play both the roles of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in their environments is unparalleled," Willis Carrington explains.[but] historically, they have remained in the shadow of research on plants and animals.

In an interview with Science magazineErik Stokstad, mycologist, Tuula Niskanen, mycologist, describes some of the team's most fascinating discoveries. A type unicellular fungi live in the squamous tubes of a species of tropical cockroach, or the coarse equivalent of human kidneys. Another calls for soil contaminated with Antarctic diesel at home, while one third grows in the salty crusts of the Chilean Andes, in a symbiotic relationship with a certain type of green algae.

The researchers also identified 37 new species of Aspergillus mussels, which Carrington writes have survived in environments ranging from an oil painting to a fingernail, plant tissue and a baby carrier backpack.

The report also highlights the potential role of fungi in combating plastic pollution. CNNJames Masters reports that Aspergillus tubingensis, a native of Pakistan, is capable of degrading plastics such as polyester polyurethane, a common component of refrigerator insulation and synthetic leather, in weeks rather than years. As Sky News note, this process usually takes decades or even centuries.

A study on A. tubingensisThe processing properties of plastics revealed that fungi degraded plastic in just two months. According to the report, the species could be "developed into one of the indispensable tools to cope with the growing environmental problem of plastic water".

The size and complexity of fungi range from unicellular microscopic organisms to fungi, molds and yeasts. The kingdom is closer to animals than plants, BBC NewsBriggs writes and shares cell wall chemicals with lobsters and crabs. In 2017, scientists discovered 2,189 new species of mushrooms-inc Planamyces Parisiensis, a mold found on the decaying wooden beams of a Parisian building, and Gymnosporangium przewalskii, a type of parasitic fungus that needs its host to stay alive, but as Niskanen says ScienceStokstad, "at the current rate, it would take more than 1000 years to describe" all varieties of mushrooms in the world.

More than 100 scientists from 18 countries collaborated on the report, highlighting the unique versatility of the fungal kingdom.

"As the foundation of the world's ecosystems, fungi can potentially provide answers to everything from food security and biofuels to desertification and medicinal advances," says Willis. the guardianCarrington.

But the role of fungi in the environment is not entirely positive. As Willis adds, "Worldwide, the spread of fungal pathogens that devastate crops and communities of wild plants is a source of great concern, a threat that seems to be growing with climate change."

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