Fungal Forteana / Fortean Fungi

[maximus otter]

Oyster mushrooms release nerve gas to kill worms before eviscerating them

Oyster mushrooms violently attack and eat their prey. A study published January 18 in the journal Science Advances found that they use a nerve gas to poison and paralyze nematodes and then slurp out the insides.

What we think of as mushrooms are part of a fungus’s reproductive structure, also called a fruiting body. Oyster mushrooms are the spore-filled reproductive structures of a fungus called Pleurotus ostreatus. In 2020, study author Yen-Ping Hsueh and her team from Taiwan’s Academia Sinica found that P. ostreatus has a tiny, lollipop-shaped structure within the mushroom. When nematodes pass against the fungus, the lollipop structures break their heads open, releasing a highly toxic nerve gas, 3-octanone.

“They really paralyze the worms within a minute,” Hsueh [said] in an interview about the new study and her work with fungi. “It’s very dramatic.”

(One immediate development is that the oyster mushroom may not be considered a truly vegan food—because they eat nematodes.)

https://www.popsci.com/science/oyster-mushroom-nerve-gas/

maximus otter

 

[Sid]

Oyster mushrooms release nerve gas to kill worms before eviscerating them

Oyster mushrooms violently attack and eat their prey. A study published January 18 in the journal Science Advances found that they use a nerve gas to poison and paralyze nematodes and then slurp out the insides.

What we think of as mushrooms are part of a fungus’s reproductive structure, also called a fruiting body. Oyster mushrooms are the spore-filled reproductive structures of a fungus called Pleurotus ostreatus. In 2020, study author Yen-Ping Hsueh and her team from Taiwan’s Academia Sinica found that P. ostreatus has a tiny, lollipop-shaped structure within the mushroom. When nematodes pass against the fungus, the lollipop structures break their heads open, releasing a highly toxic nerve gas, 3-octanone.

“They really paralyze the worms within a minute,” Hsueh [said] in an interview about the new study and her work with fungi. “It’s very dramatic.”

(One immediate development is that the oyster mushroom may not be considered a truly vegan food—because they eat nematodes.)

https://www.popsci.com/science/oyster-mushroom-nerve-gas/

maximus otter

Well, Nematodes certainly seem to have a price on their heads - just like Mushrooms!

 

[uair01]

Here's a list of medicinal mushrooms:
http://mushroomreferences.com/

 

[ramonmercado]

Watch out for murderous mushrooms!

Let me introduce you to something truly horrifying - the fungus that turns its victims into zombies.

Its spores enter the body. The fungus then grows and begins to hijack the mind of its host until it loses control and is compelled to climb to higher ground. The parasitic fungus devours its victim from the inside, extracting every last nutrient, as it prepares for its big finale. Then - in a scene more disturbing than the scariest horror film - a tendril of death erupts from the head. This fruiting body of the fungus showers spores on everything around it - dooming others to the same zombie fate.

It sounds like a work of fiction. But the kingdom of fungi - distinct from plants and animals - ranges from edible mushrooms to nightmare-fuel parasites. Species of parasitic Cordyceps and Ophiocordyceps fungi are very real. Here, on the BBC's Planet Earth series, Sir David Attenborough watches as one takes control of an ant: (vid at link)

That clip of zombie ants inspired "The Last of Us" - possibly the best video game I've ever played, and now a hit TV series which follows the same plot. In both the game and on TV, Cordyceps makes the leap from preying on its usual insect victims, to infecting humans. The resulting pandemic leads to the collapse of society.

• The Last of Us: TV series of hit game praised by critics
• Fungi are 'underloved and understudied'

But in the real world, is a Cordyceps pandemic - or one caused by another fungus - ever likely to happen?

"I think we underestimate fungal infections at our peril," Dr Neil Stone, leading fungal expert at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London, tells me. "We've already done that for too long and we are completely unprepared for dealing with a fungal pandemic."

At the end of October last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued its first list of life-threatening fungi. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-64402102

 

[ramonmercado]

Watch out for murderous mushrooms!

Let me introduce you to something truly horrifying - the fungus that turns its victims into zombies.

Its spores enter the body. The fungus then grows and begins to hijack the mind of its host until it loses control and is compelled to climb to higher ground. The parasitic fungus devours its victim from the inside, extracting every last nutrient, as it prepares for its big finale. Then - in a scene more disturbing than the scariest horror film - a tendril of death erupts from the head. This fruiting body of the fungus showers spores on everything around it - dooming others to the same zombie fate.

It sounds like a work of fiction. But the kingdom of fungi - distinct from plants and animals - ranges from edible mushrooms to nightmare-fuel parasites. Species of parasitic Cordyceps and Ophiocordyceps fungi are very real. Here, on the BBC's Planet Earth series, Sir David Attenborough watches as one takes control of an ant: (vid at link)

That clip of zombie ants inspired "The Last of Us" - possibly the best video game I've ever played, and now a hit TV series which follows the same plot. In both the game and on TV, Cordyceps makes the leap from preying on its usual insect victims, to infecting humans. The resulting pandemic leads to the collapse of society.

• The Last of Us: TV series of hit game praised by critics
• Fungi are 'underloved and understudied'

But in the real world, is a Cordyceps pandemic - or one caused by another fungus - ever likely to happen?

"I think we underestimate fungal infections at our peril," Dr Neil Stone, leading fungal expert at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London, tells me. "We've already done that for too long and we are completely unprepared for dealing with a fungal pandemic."

At the end of October last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued its first list of life-threatening fungi. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-64402102

More on the ongoing war between ants and fungi.

There’s an arms race going on between a disease-causing fungus and its host, and it’s not the one portrayed in HBO’s postapocalyptic series The Last of Us.

Researchers have found that, with a bit of grooming, ants can help their comrades fight off multiple fungal invaders—but that these fungi have also found a way to fight back. Such battles could influence the evolution of pathogens found in a wide range of species, including humans.

“The study is capturing evolution in action,” says Trine Bilde, an evolutionary biologist at Aarhus University who was not involved with the work. “That’s so cool.”

Ants, like people, are social. They live in giant colonies, with each individual invested in the others’ survival. Worker ants don’t just sacrifice themselves for the queen, they groom each other for parasites, similar to how chimpanzees pick fleas and ticks off their companions.

https://www.science.org/content/article/arms-race-between-ants-and-fungi-has-echoes-last-us

 

[ramonmercado]

A Fungi Apocalypse could be beneficial - for mice and rats.

Fungi have attracted attention in recent years for their potential in aiding our brains' growth and functionality. And no, we're not just talking about the psychedelic ones.

The lion's mane mushroom, for one, has long had a reputation for various mental health benefits, with recent research supporting its potential in reducing risk for depression or limiting damage from Alzheimer's disease.

In a new study conducted by an international team of scientists, researchers identified compounds in the lion's mane mushroom (Hericium erinaceus) – an edible fungus species also known as yamabushitake or hou tou gu – that could boost nerve growth and enhance memory.

"Extracts from these so-called lion's mane mushrooms have been used in traditional medicine in Asian countries for centuries, but we wanted to scientifically determine their potential effect on brain cells," says lead author Frédéric Meunier from the Queensland Brain Institute.

The researchers isolated a compound from the lion's mane mushroom known as N-de phenylethyl isohericerin, along with its hydrophobic derivative called hericene A, and tested their effects on cultured neurons from rat embryos.

The extracts had a "clear neurotrophic effect," they write, resulting in doubly long axons – the threadlike links that conduct impulses away from a neuron – and more than triple the number of neurites, or small projections from a neuron that can grow into fully functional axons or dendrites. ...

https://www.sciencealert.com/mushro...atically-improve-brain-cell-growth-in-the-lab

 

[flannel]

The lion's mane mushroom, for one, has long had a reputation for various mental health benefits, with recent research supporting its potential in reducing risk for depression or limiting damage from Alzheimer's disease.

It is also part of Stamets microdosing stack:
https://microdosinginstitute.com/microdosing-101/substances/lions-mane-stacking/

He's got very high hopes for it:

He would like to see this supplement available as a vitamin, claiming that its efficacy in epigenetic neurogenesis has the potential to initiate “the next quantum leap in human consciousness.”

https://thethirdwave.co/microdosing-psilocybin-mushrooms-stamets-stack/

 

[uair01]

I've been experimenting with microdosing (I'm a fungi and neurology amateur, so the combination is irresistible) and both me and my wife seem to see positive effects, though placebo effect cannot be excluded.

There's some serious research being done on this:
https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/fpn/studies

I'm also self experimenting with these medicinal mushroom extracts but the effect is less obvious than with the psilocybin mushrooms.
https://www.foodsporen.com/nl/capsules/foodsporen-power-5/power-5-capsules/

Always interested in your results.
Note: this is not medical advice, I have no medical training!

 

[uair01]

 

[Mythopoeika]

View attachment 63686

Hope that doesn't jump from insects to humans. *shudder*

 

[uair01]

https://www.leidenmedievalistsblog.nl/articles/medieval-mushrooms

A nice article on medieval hallucinogenic plant speculations. I read the book they mention, about hallucinogenic shrooms in Christianity, and it's wacky but fun to read.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

I read the book they mention, about hallucinogenic shrooms in Christianity, and it's wacky but fun to read.

That stirred a memory! I remembered reading the book but I see it was over twenty years ago.

I even wrote a review of it on here, in a short-lived thread of book reviews. Amazingly, it is still here, complete with the weird margin problem I had at that time*.

*My Mac. did not recognize the limits of the site's text-box, expanding it as I typed, until I pressed Return.

 

[kamalktk]

Watch out for murderous mushrooms!

Let me introduce you to something truly horrifying - the fungus that turns its victims into zombies.

Its spores enter the body. The fungus then grows and begins to hijack the mind of its host until it loses control and is compelled to climb to higher ground. The parasitic fungus devours its victim from the inside, extracting every last nutrient, as it prepares for its big finale. Then - in a scene more disturbing than the scariest horror film - a tendril of death erupts from the head. This fruiting body of the fungus showers spores on everything around it - dooming others to the same zombie fate.

It sounds like a work of fiction. But the kingdom of fungi - distinct from plants and animals - ranges from edible mushrooms to nightmare-fuel parasites. Species of parasitic Cordyceps and Ophiocordyceps fungi are very real. Here, on the BBC's Planet Earth series, Sir David Attenborough watches as one takes control of an ant: (vid at link)

That clip of zombie ants inspired "The Last of Us" - possibly the best video game I've ever played, and now a hit TV series which follows the same plot. In both the game and on TV, Cordyceps makes the leap from preying on its usual insect victims, to infecting humans. The resulting pandemic leads to the collapse of society.

• The Last of Us: TV series of hit game praised by critics
• Fungi are 'underloved and understudied'

But in the real world, is a Cordyceps pandemic - or one caused by another fungus - ever likely to happen?

"I think we underestimate fungal infections at our peril," Dr Neil Stone, leading fungal expert at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London, tells me. "We've already done that for too long and we are completely unprepared for dealing with a fungal pandemic."

At the end of October last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued its first list of life-threatening fungi. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-64402102

Fun fact, Cordyceps doesn't infect the brain, it just hijacks the muscles. That means the people that become Last of Us infected could be still conscious and aware of what their body is doing...

 

[uair01]

That stirred a memory! I remembered reading the book but I see it was over twenty years ago.

I even wrote a review of it on here, in a short-lived thread of book reviews. Amazingly, it is still here, complete with the weird margin problem I had at that time*.

*My Mac. did not recognize the limits of the site's text-box, expanding it as I typed, until I pressed Return.

Thanks for the review of the Allegro book. It confirms that I do nor need to read it

The book I'm reading is:
Brown, Jerry B., and Julie M. Brown, The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in Christianity (Rochester, VT: Park Street Press, 2016).

It's a travelogue along sites with Christian mushroom pictures. The author couple is well meaning, and also very very American and sometimes culturally colourblind. But still a fun book, although misguided, I think.

It is full of dialogue like this. Notice the occurrence of BS in this context

“Look!” Julie said, pointing directly above the holy water. “That looks like a blue mushroom, sitting on top of a pine cone. It’s flanked by two dragons, under a red circle inside a gold border with the initials ‘B. S.’ in the middle. And there’s an inscription in French that reads: par ce signe tu le vaincras” (see plate 11).“The initials have to stand for the priest, Béranger Saunière,” I noted, “who obviously was not a modest man. But what does the inscription say?” I asked Julie, who had lived in Paris many years ago.Julie reflected and then turned to me and said, “It means ‘By this sign, you shall conquer.’”*28 We fell silent, taking in this new information. Then, after looking around to confirm we were alone in this small church, Julie spoke up, asking, “What are you thinking?”“Well,” I replied, “unlike Saint Martin, there’s no distinguishing shape to the mushroom. And we have no context here in which to place this little blue mushroom—if it really is a mushroom—that is suspended over the holy water. There’s no biblical story or imagery to relate it to and nothing about the life of Christ.”

 

[ramonmercado]

Keanu Kills Fungal Foes

Research scientists at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology in Jena, Germany recently discovered bacterial compounds that they have named "keanumycins," after actor Keanu Reeves, because of their ability to evade predatory amoeba and slay harmful enemies. Esquire explains:

Lead author Sebastian Götze described the keanumycins as creating "holes" in the surface of the pathogen, causing it to "bleed" to death. This lethal action is similar to the way Reeves dispatches his foes in the "John Wick" films.
When the researchers applied the keanumycins to a hydrangea plant covered in the fungus Botrytis cinerea, they found that the bacteria filled the fungus with holes, freeing the plant of the blight.

Smithsonian Magazine explains that keanumycins are particularly effective against a gray mold that affects hundreds of types of fruits and vegetables: ...

https://boingboing.net/2023/03/20/k...lling-compounds-named-after-keanu-reeves.html

 

[Sid]

Keanu Kills Fungal Foes

Research scientists at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology in Jena, Germany recently discovered bacterial compounds that they have named "keanumycins," after actor Keanu Reeves, because of their ability to evade predatory amoeba and slay harmful enemies. Esquire explains:


Smithsonian Magazine explains that keanumycins are particularly effective against a gray mold that affects hundreds of types of fruits and vegetables: ...

https://boingboing.net/2023/03/20/k...lling-compounds-named-after-keanu-reeves.html

Sounds like this could potentially be a big game changer, now, and in future. But I would question the description. . . ["they found that the bacteria 'filled' the fungus with holes,"] I know holes can be filled-in, but I never knew that you could fill in holes with holes! (Personally, I think. . . covered the fungus with a bacteria, which then produced holes in it) might be a better way to describe the way that the bacteria works?)