Small Things Considered

Fungomania I. Fungi Make Flowers

by Elio  
Nature seems to be in­tent in fool­ing every­one, ex­per­ienced bo­tan­ists included. An ex­ample is seen in the abi­li­ty of some fungi to change the ter­mi­nal leaves of cer­tain must­ard plants into what look like flo­ral pe­tals, mak­ing them look like real flowers. Polli­nat­ing in­sects are at­tracted to them and land on these struc­tures... Read more →

Underground Highways

by Roberto
This photograph, taken from our book Life at the Edge of Sight, shows a network of almost invisible fungal filaments which, like miniature highways, wind their way around peaks and form bridges over valleys all within a minute amount of soil. Read more →

Exploration, Streptomyces-style

by Roberto
The evolutionary trajectories of bacteria are great­ly in­fluen­ced by their re­pro­duc­tive suc­cess in chan­ging en­vi­ron­ments. Of course, this is not just about how fast bac­te­ria di­vide when con­di­tions per­mit growth but also how well they sur­vive in the ab­sence of growth. In ad­di­tion, an im­port­ant de­ter­mi­nant of the over­all fit­ness of a bac­te­ri­al lineage is... Read more →

Three to Tango

by Elio
How many symbioses that involve three partners can you think of? Surely, not many. But here is one, involving a pathogenic fungus, a bacterium, and a fungal virus. Read more →

Fungomania III. Of a Fungus and a Crop

by Roberto
There are literal­ly thousands of fun­gal spe­cies that cause plant dis­eases and their ef­fects on agri­cul­tu­ral crops ends of cost­ing bil­lions of dol­lars eve­ry year. Many of these fun­gal plant pa­tho­gens are fas­ci­na­ting sub­jects for stu­dy. Among the many, I have a per­so­nal "fa­vo­rite." I place the word in quotes be­cause I re­cog­nize the od­di­ty of la­bel­ing a pa­tho­gen... Read more →

Fungomania II. Singing Frogs

by Roberto
Like many others, I am having trouble focusing on work these days. I admit it, I've had dif­fi­cult­ies sit­ting down to write this post; the mind keeps wan­der­ing off, ima­gin­ing the like­ly sce­na­rios of the coming months. After all, we are in the midst of the COVID-19 pan­demic. In an ef­fort to over­come my an­xie­ty, I find so­lace in think­ing that... Read more →

Fungomania I. Enoki

by Elio
You most likely have eaten enoki mushrooms in a Japanese soup or a salad. You may have wondered about them, looking as they do as thin whitish noodles with a small cap at the end... Read more →

Discovering a Novel Algal-Fungal Symbiosis... and a Humanized Journal

by Elio
Lichens are said to occupy an astounding 6% of the surface of Earth’s land mass, so pay attention. As you are well aware, lichens arise by the symbiotic interaction of fungi and algae (or sometimes cyanobacteria). And as you know, they consist of separate individuals of the two partners, each benefiting from the interaction. Read more →

Making Mycorrhrizae. A Snippet.

by Elio
Very high on the list of this world's vital sym­bio­ses are the my­cor­rhi­zae, the as­so­ci­a­tion of fun­gal fi­la­ments with plant root­lets. About 90% of all vas­cu­lar plants (from ferns on up) pos­sess them. They con­tri­bute great­ly to the health of the plants, being a ma­jor source of ni­tro­gen, salts, and water... Read more →

Fungomania 3. Farming and Alcohol

by Elio
Alcohol and farming do not often go together, unless you think of beetles. In certain species, ethanol is used to increase the fruit of their labor, which sounds good but requires an explanation. Read more →