Fungal Stars in the Forest Dark

This is the third post for this year's Week of the Fungi on STC, a sporadic undertaking. This annual festival is our way to hail the start of the fall mushroom collecting season in parts of our home territory (the northern hemisphere).

Mycena lux-coeli, a Japanese fungus
photographed by its own light. Source.

by Elio

Fungi, along with selected bacteria and invertebrates, are included in the list of bioluminescent organisms. These fungi are pretty unique because, unlike the other light-emitting organisms, fungi don't walk, swim, or fly. Thus, the usual explanations for bioluminescence (e.g., attraction, repulsion, communication) do not seem to apply. Dispersing spores is a central preoccupation among mushrooms, so one can guess that the light may facilitate visits by animals that could help in this process. Plus, as Dennis Desjardin writes in a news item from the NSF, some may well glow to attract the predators of insects that eat the mushrooms...befriend the enemy of your enemy!

Mycena lucentipes, a Brazilian mushroom
photographed by its own light. Source.

So far, only 65 of the 85,000 species of fungi are known to glow. Looking for new bioluminescent species is something one does under the cloak of darkness and, in Desjardin's case, in deep Brazilian jungles. Just how you avoid getting bitten by who knows who, and, more importantly, how you keep from getting lost, is something that you need to read for yourself in this article. While you are worrying about that, ponder these other questions posed by the author: Why are there so few luminescent fungi? What is the mechanism of luminescence? When and how many times did luminescence evolve in the fungi? Why do they glow?”

Comments

[ScomStudent]

Could luminescent fungi be used as an alternative light source in homes if one were to grow them in abundance? Sort of like an organic solar powered light?

Elio replies:
The fungi emit rather small amounts of light . I see your living room lined with pieces of rotting wood, which you would have to moisten form time to time. You're sure you want to do this?

[Andy]

how does it do that

Elio replies:
Some of the biochemistry of bioluminescence is known and analogous in fungi and fireflies.