Fungi

Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This weekly newsletter is part of a CBC News initiative entitled "Our Changing Planet" to show and explain the effects of climate change. Keep up with the latest news on our Climate and Environment page.Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Thursday.This week: From fashion to burials: How fungi can help fight climate change 2024 has barely started and is already threatening to set temperature records World's globetrotting animals at risk due to habitat…

Researchers at the University of Nottingham have pioneered a method to create blue cheese in an array of new colors and flavors by manipulating the fungal strains used in cheese production. Their work reveals how altering the pigment production process of Penicillium roqueforti can result in cheese that spans a variety of colors, potentially altering consumer taste perception and broadening market appeal. Credit: The University of NottinghamResearchers at the University of Nottingham have found how to produce different…

If you’ve got “face of fungi” biologist Merlin Sheldrake’s global bestseller Entangled Life on your bookshelf, unbattered and spine uncracked, this documentary might feel like an easier option. A beginner’s guide to fungi, just 40 minutes long, it is narrated by Björk and presented by the gently eccentric Sheldrake (imagine Timothée Chalamet playing a Cambridge academic, with a mop of unruly curls). It’s being released in 3D on the giant screen at London’s BFI Imax – all the better to gawp at Steve Axford’s trippy…

A study has found that playing a soundscape to a common, plant-promoting fungus found in soil caused it to grow more rapidly than fungi that weren’t exposed to sound. The novel ‘eco-acoustic’ approach has the potential to restore damaged ecosystems.Sound is a fundamental aspect of the environment and critical to ecosystems. Research has found that plants perceive sound as a mechanical stimulus that can encourage the flow of nutrients, promote growth, and strengthen their immune systems. Now, a new study by Flinders…

Researchers unveiled 1.63-billion-year-old multicellular fossils from North China, marking the oldest record of multicellular eukaryotes and pushing back the timeline for the emergence of multicellularity in eukaryotes by about 70 million years. This discovery highlights the complexity of early life forms and supports the early appearance of the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA) in the evolutionary history. (Artist’s concept.) Credit: SciTechDaily.comResearchers have discovered the oldest multicellular eukaryotic…

The global burden and death toll of fungi has substantially climbed over the past decade, new research finds. The study estimates that fungal infections help kill nearly 4 million people annually—almost double the amount estimated by similar research in 2012. Co-infections like HIV and tuberculosis, a lack of speedy and reliable diagnostic testing, and growing antifungal resistance are thought to be major contributors to these deaths.Would Peter Capaldi Return to Doctor Who?The new research is by David Denning, a fungal…

A new study indicates that two yeasts used in food production, Cyberlindnera jadinii and Kluyveromyces lactis, might have probiotic properties beneficial for gut inflammation, pointing to potential new treatments for inflammatory bowel diseases. The food industry has long utilized various fungal strains for their fermentation, flavor production, and ability to produce heterologous molecules. A recent study highlights the potential probiotic effects of two fungi, commonly used in food production, on gut inflammation. The…

In what is a hugely promising sign for securing and boosting food production, a large-scale field study has demonstrated how treating farmland soil with mycorrhizal fungi can improve crop yields of maize by 40%, without the use of any additional fertilizers or pesticides.In the Swiss study, researchers mixed Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) into soil, prior to sowing, at 800 trial plots on 54 maize farms.This fungi occurs naturally in healthy soil and penetrates the roots of plants to form tree-like structures…

Researchers studied fungi behavior under hypergravity, revealing both the risks and potential benefits of fungi in space missions. Future studies will investigate other organisms in similar conditions. (Artist’s concept.)Macau University researchers studied fungi behavior under hypergravity, revealing both the risks and potential benefits of fungi in space missions. Future studies will investigate other organisms in similar conditions.Fungi in Hypergravity: The StudyFungi in space have been a plot point in Star Trek:…

Long-lived fungi are the latest organisms to go under the microscope in search of new understandings as to why they don't accrue life-limiting mutations, given their age.Researchers at Wageningen University in the Netherlands set out to compare "the peculiarities" of multicellular growth in filamentous fungi. What they ended up with was a new hypothesis explaining how certain types of fungi keep a lid on freeloading mutations that accumulate in their thread-like mycelia; the root-like structures of fungal colonies.The…