Fungi: mycelia, mushrooms & more

Medical devices embedded deep in human flesh. Mushrooms growing designer chairs. Engineered probiotic bacteria colonising the guts of soldiers. Implants; fungal factories; bacteria. All three are “biodesigns”, yet each is a product of a very different discipline: biomedical engineering, design, and synthetic biology. Over the last twenty years, each field has in turn claimed the fusing of biology and design as their own. If design is humanity’s process for changing present conditions to other, preferred ones (to paraphrase political scientist Herbert Simon), then biodesign—which we broadly define here as the design of, with, or from biology—offers novel perspectives on what change could look like, for ourselves and other living things. Altered or designed by humans, these organisms could populate “other biological futures”; possible futures different to those dictated by our planet’s naturally evolved present. (...)

Ontogenetic Resilience through Myco-voltage

Today we are talking about ontogenetic resilience: acknowledging increasingly tumultuous systems and the fragility of individual identity. We propose an identity that embraces the in-between spaces: becoming who we are, rather than being what we are. We have spoken about ontogenetic resilience as a sustained state of becoming, an acceptance of the in-between. 

I want to introduce a project I’ve been working on alongside Claudia and colleagues, involving oyster mushrooms and the production of electronic music. It is my hope that this project can be a vessel to explore the concept of our position within systems. I have approached this project with cybernetic concepts in mind, and I hope you will bear with me as I reconnect some of these dots in the next few minutes. (...)

Explore the potential of “mushroom computers,” a fascinating technology that uses fungi to solve complex problems in AI, optimization, and more.

To learn more about this exciting field of study, Interesting Engineering contacted a leading light in “mushroom computers,” Professor Andrew Adamatzky, director of the Unconventional Computing Laboratory at the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK.

An environmental toxicologist in California is cleaning up areas contaminated with heavy metals or other pollutants using fungi and native plants in a win-win for nature.

Where once toxic soils in industrial lots sat bare or weed-ridden, there are now flowering meadows of plants and mushrooms, frequented by birds and pollinators: and it’s thanks to Danielle Stevenson.

Noting that she had read studies about mushrooms growing around the Chernobyl nuclear plant, she came to understand further, through her work, that fungi are an extraordinarily resilient species of life that consume carbon, and even though petroleum products are toxic to plants, to mushrooms they are essentially a kind of carbon.

In fact, mushrooms break down several categories of toxic waste with the same enzymes they use to consume a dead tree. They can also eat plastic and other things made out of oil, like agrochemicals.

Derived from the root structure of mushrooms, mycelium provides a high-protein, fiber-rich food source that companies such as Meati Foods claim tastes similar to meat.

This week, Meati Foods faced a class action lawsuit accusing the company of falsely advertising its products as “made with mushroom root.”

The case against Meati Foods echoes a high-profile class action filed in 2016 against Quorn Foods. Quorn was accused of misleading consumers by suggesting its meat alternatives, made from the fungus Fusarium venenatum, were “substantially similar to a mushroom.”

Published July 2024

Genetic studies in mushrooms, driven by innovations such as CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing and RNA interference, transform our understanding of these enigmatic fungi and their multifaceted roles in agriculture, medicine, and conservation. This comprehensive review explores the rationale and significance of genetic research in mushrooms, delving into the ethical, regulatory, and ecological dimensions of this field.

Published May 2024

Results:

Meta-analysis on 436 participants (228 female participants), average age 36-60 years, from seven of the nine included studies showed a significant benefit of psilocybin (Hedges' g=1.64, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.55 to 2.73, P<0.001) on change in depression scores compared with comparator treatment. Subgroup analyses and metaregressions indicated that having secondary depression (Hedges' g=3.25, 95% CI 0.97 to 5.53), being assessed with self-report depression scales such as the Beck depression inventory (3.25, 0.97 to 5.53), and older age and previous use of psychedelics (metaregression coefficient 0.16, 95% CI 0.08 to 0.24 and 4.2, 1.5 to 6.9, respectively) were correlated with greater improvements in symptoms. All studies had a low risk of bias, but the change from baseline metric was associated with high heterogeneity and a statistically significant risk of small study bias, resulting in a low certainty of evidence rating.

Conclusion:

Treatment effects of psilocybin were significantly larger among patients with secondary depression, when self-report scales were used to measure symptoms of depression, and when participants had previously used psychedelics. Further research is thus required to delineate the influence of expectancy effects, moderating factors, and treatment delivery on the efficacy of psilocybin as an antidepressant.

Natural dyes derived from mushrooms offer a sustainable and eco-friendly alternative to synthetic dyes, which are often harmful to the environment and human health. Using mushrooms as a source of natural colorants can produce a wide range of hues, from earthy browns to vibrant reds and yellows.

Here are 10 ways mushrooms may help save the planet — from reducing air pollution and microplastics to creating sustainable building materials and food products.

1. Neutralizing Carbon Pollution

Certain species of mycorrhizal fungi, dubbed "ectomycorrhizal fungi," help trees absorb CO2 from the atmosphere faster. They also retain carbon for much longe

2. Restoring Soil Quality

Mycoremediation is a form of bioremediation that utilizes fungi to clean up polluted soil and restore its nutrient content. Certain mushrooms, known as “decomposers,” break down organic and petroleum-based matter and convert it into readily available nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and calcium.

3. Removing Microplastics

Several species in the Pestalotiopsis genus can eat microplastics and convert them back to organic molecules.

4. Reducing Eutrophication

Eutrophication is the process where nutrient runoff from the land collects in water systems, causing explosive growth in microorganisms that suck up all the oxygen in the water. Mycofiltration is a process that uses certain species of fungi to filter water and consum excess nutrients that leads to eutrophication.

5. Making Biodegradable Plastics

Development is still in the early stages, but some experts believe mushrooms could be the answer to eliminating the plastic circulating in our environment by offering us an alternative to oil-based polymers.

6. Reducing the Environmental Impact of Livestock Farming

Every 1 kg of beef sold at the supermarket requires 25 kg of crop and 15,000 liters of water. Mushrooms may be part of the answer to this problem.

7. Sustainable Food Source

Mushrooms may offer a more sustainable replacement to supplement our reliance on meat.

8. A Sustainable Building Material

Amazingly, bricks can be grown from mycelium. These “biobricks” are made by colonizing molds filled with agricultural waste with mushroom mycelium.

9. Saving the Bees

Bees and other pollinating flying insects are in decline. This is mainly due to modern monoculture agricultural practices that lack biodiversity and require insecticidal spraying. Mushrooms could help alter traditional agricultural processes to improve biodiversity by reducing the amount of land reserved for monoculture farming.

Mushrooms may also have the answer to a growing problem that honey bees are facing — disease.

10. Remediation of Environmental Disasters

Oil spills are one of the most widely reported and destructive environmental disasters of our time. Although mushrooms can’t single-handedly clean up entire oil spills, they can help restore the land once the bulk of the spill is cleared up. (...)

The scientists discovered that the fungi were using the radioactive material as a food source, decomposing it, and converting it to energy for growth. These fungi have been dubbed “radiotrophic fungi” and may hold the answer to cleaning up the environment after devastating nuclear events.

Antibacterial properties

Filamentous fungi were cultivated in bioreactors to produce fungal biomass. Cell wall material was then isolated from the fungal biomass and used to spin a filament, which was tested for its suitability in medical applications.

“Tests of the fibers showed compatibility with skin cells and also indicated an antibacterial effect”, said Sofie Svensson, adding:

“In the method we worked with, we focused on using milder processes and chemicals. The use of hazardous and toxic chemicals is currently a challenge in the textile industry, and developing sustainable materials is important to reduce environmental impact.”

Invidious link

Penicillin was first discovered in 1928 by a scientist called Alexander Fleming. He noticed that bacteria he was trying to grow would not grow near a certain type of mold fungus. After lots of experimentation he discovered that the mold produced a substance that killed the bacteria. He called this substance penicillin and was able to purify it and use it to treat bacterial infections in people. The drug has gone on to save millions of lives.

But for the really good stuff at Kew, you have to look below the ground. Tucked underneath a laboratory at the garden’s eastern edge is the fungarium: the largest collection of fungi anywhere in the world. Nestled inside a series of green cardboard boxes are some 1.3 million specimens of fruiting bodies

In the hierarchy of environmental causes, fungi have traditionally ranked somewhere close to the bottom, Davies says.

In a laboratory just above the Kew fungarium, mycologist Laura Martinez-Suz studies how fungi help sequester carbon in the soil, and why some places seem much better at storing soil carbon than others. (...) There are around 1.5 trillion tons of organic carbon stored in soils across the world — about twice the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. (...) One study of forested islands in Sweden found that the majority of carbon in the forest soil actually came from root-fungi networks, not plant matter fallen from above the ground.

Around 90 percent of plant species are known to make these symbiotic trade networks with different species of fungi.

This has serious implications for tree-planting schemes.

Stevenson's approach, termed mycoremediation, leverages the natural decomposing abilities of fungi to degrade petrochemicals, transforming them into non-toxic substances. In recent projects in Los Angeles, her team successfully reduced petrochemical pollutants and heavy metals at several industrial sites, transforming these areas into thriving meadows of native plants. These efforts not only rehabilitate the environment but also foster biodiversity, as evidenced by the return of bees, birds, and other wildlife to these revitalized spaces.

Her innovative work extends beyond cleanup to include community empowerment. Stevenson collaborates with environmental justice and tribal communities, offering training programs that enable these groups to manage and remediate their local toxic sites independently.

Youtube link

New information about historical uses of fungi continues to be discovered from museums as accessions of fungi and objects made from fungi collected over the last 150+ years are examined and identified. Two textiles thought to be made from fungal mats are located in the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, and the Oakland Museum of California.

Although DNA sequencing failed to yield a taxonomic identification, microscopy and characteristics of the mycelial mats suggest that the mats were produced by Laricifomes officinalis.

MycoHab has developed mycoblocks – large, solid brown slabs grown from oyster mushroom waste.

Stronger than conventional concrete, these mushroom-based bricks are the result of an initiative by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in collaboration with the Standard Bank, led by MycoHab.

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The plastic-digesting capabilities of the fungus Parengyodontium album could be harnessed to degrade polyethylene, the most abundant type of plastic in the ocean

A fungus found on litter floating in the North Pacific Ocean can break down the most abundant type of plastic that ends up in the sea.

Vaksmaa believes that the fungus, known as Parengyodontium album, has great potential, but she is cautious about putting it to use in the wild. “If we take a microbe and add it to a natural system, then we may ruin it while trying to do good,” she says. Instead, she suggests it may be best to gather the plastic first and bring it back to land to be digested by P. album that has been grown in bulk. This could be achieved using well-established techniques, similar to those used in the brewing industry, she says.

Creating fertilizers from organic waste can help reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and promote sustainable production. One way of doing this is through hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL), which converts biomass into biocrude oil through a high-temperature, high-pressure process.

Two studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign explore the use of a fungal treatment to convert the leftover wastewater into fertilizer for agricultural crops.

The first study, "Hydrothermal liquefaction aqueous phase mycoremediation to increase inorganic nitrogen availability,"

The second study, "Wastewater Nutrient Recovery via Fungal and Nitrifying Bacteria Treatment,"

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Next time you purchase white button mushrooms at the grocery store, just remember, they may be cute and bite-size but they have a relative out west that occupies some 2,384 acres (965 hectares) of soil in Oregon's Blue Mountains. Put another way, this humongous fungus would encompass 1,665 football fields, or nearly four square miles (10 square kilometers) of turf.

The discovery of this giant Armillaria ostoyae in 1998 heralded a new record holder for the title of the world's largest known organism, believed by most to be the 110-foot- (33.5-meter-) long, 200-ton blue whale. Based on its current growth rate, the fungus is estimated to be 2,400 years old but could be as ancient as 8,650 years, which would earn it a place among the oldest living organisms as well.

A team of forestry scientists discovered the giant after setting out to map the population of this pathogenic fungus in eastern Oregon. The team paired fungal samples in petri dishes to see if they fused (see photo below), a sign that they were from the same genetic individual, and used DNA fingerprinting to determine where one individual fungus ended.

"These are very strange organisms to our anthropocentric way of thinking," says biochemist Myron Smith of Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. An Armillaria individual consists of a network of hyphae, he explains. "Collectively, this network is called the mycelium and is of an indefinite shape and size."