Fungus News

April 24, 2024

Top Headlines

Discovery Could End Global Amphibian Pandemic

Apr. 3, 2024 — A fungus devastating frogs and toads on nearly every continent may have an Achilles heel. Scientists have discovered a virus that infects the fungus, and that could be engineered to save the ...

Researchers Discover Evolutionary 'Tipping Point' in Fungi

Mar. 25, 2024 — Scientists have found a 'tipping point' in the evolution of fungi that throttles their growth and sculpts their shapes. The findings demonstrate how small changes in environmental factors can lead to huge changes in evolutionary ...

Rise in Global Fungal Drug-Resistant Infections

Mar. 18, 2024 — A global wave of infections caused by fungi growing drug-resistant has the medical community issuing precautions on how to protect ...

Experts Warn Climate Change Will Fuel Spread of Infectious Diseases

Mar. 20, 2024 — Infectious diseases specialists call the medical field to be ready to deal with the impact of climate change on spreading diseases, such as malaria, Valley fever, E. coli and Lyme ...

Latest Headlines

updated 8:23am EDT

Maize Genes Control Little Helpers in the Soil

Mar. 21, 2024 — Tiny organisms such as bacteria and fungi help to promote the health and function of plant roots. It is commonly assumed that the composition of these microbes is dependent on the properties of the ...

It's Hearty, It's Meaty, It's Mold

Mar. 14, 2024 — Scientists are exploring how tuning the genomes of mushrooms and molds can transform these food sources into gourmet, nutrient-packed meals made with minimal processing and a light environmental ...

Microbes Impact Coral Bleaching Susceptibility

Mar. 6, 2024 — A new study provides insights into the role of microbes and their interaction as drivers of interspecific differences in coral thermal ...

A New Plant's Name That Tells a Story

Feb. 29, 2024 — A new species and genus of fairy lantern, tiny glass-like white plants that feed on fungi, has been discovered in Japan. In the country renowned for its extensive flora research, the discovery of a ...

Scientists Assemble a Richer Picture of the Plight and Resilience of the Foothill Yellow-Legged Frog

Feb. 26, 2024 — Up to only a few inches in length, with a lemon-hued belly, the foothill yellow-legged frog may seem unassuming. But its range once stretched from ...

Engineering a Coating for Disease-Free Produce

Feb. 20, 2024 — Texas A&M researchers combine food-grade wax with essential oils to defend produce from ...

Pollinator's Death Trap Turns Into Nursery

Feb. 19, 2024 — In a group of plants that is famous for luring its pollinators into a death trap, one species offers its flowers as a nursery in exchange. The discovery blurs the line between mutualism and ...

Better Diagnosis and Treatment of Cryptococcosis

Feb. 13, 2024 — A global guideline for the management of cryptococcosis, a fungal infection that can have serious health consequences, has been ...

Friend or Foe? Ancient Partnership Between Moss and Fungi

Feb. 7, 2024 — Researchers have shed new light on the ancient relationship between moss and fungi. They discovered that intricate moss-fungi interactions often depended on a third variable -- the presence of ...

Scientists 'Break the Mould' by Creating New Colors of 'Blue Cheese'

Feb. 5, 2024 — Experts have discovered how to create different colors of blue cheese. After discovering how the classic blue-green veining is created, a team of experts were able to create a variety of different ...

'The Future Is Fungal': New Research Finds That Fungi That Live in Healthy Plants Are Sensitive to Climate Change

Feb. 20, 2024 — Findings more than a decade in the making reveal a rich diversity of beneficial fungi living in boreal forest trees, with implications for the health of ...

Two New Freshwater Fungi Species in China Enhance Biodiversity Knowledge

Feb. 6, 2024 — Researchers have discovered two new freshwater hyphomycete (mould) species, Acrogenospora alangii and Conioscypha yunnanensis, in southwestern China. The discovery marks the addition of these species ...

How Leafcutter Ants Cultivate a Fungal Garden to Degrade Plants and Provide Insights Into Future Biofuels

Feb. 1, 2024 — Scientists developed a new method to map exactly how a fungus works with leafcutter ants in a complex microbial community to degrade plant material at the molecular level. The team's insights ...

Climate Change: Fungal Disease Endangers Wheat Production

Feb. 1, 2024 — Climate change poses a threat to yields and food security worldwide, with plant diseases as one of the main risks. An international team of researchers has now shown that further spread of the fungal ...

Fungal-Rich Soil May Improve Green Roofs

Jan. 31, 2024 — Green roofs have become increasingly popular thanks to their benefits related to climate adaptation, mitigation, and urban biodiversity management. But, in the U.S., green roofs are typically planted ...

The Underground Network: Decoding the Dynamics of Plant-Fungal Symbiosis

Jan. 25, 2024 — The intricate dance of nature often unfolds in mysterious ways, hidden from the naked eye. At the heart of this enigmatic tango lies a vital partnership: the symbiosis between plants and a type of ...

'Talking' Tomatoes: How Their Communication Is Influenced by Enemies and Friends

Jan. 24, 2024 — Plants produce a range of chemicals known as volatile organic compounds that influence their interactions with the world around them. In a new study, researchers investigated how the type and amount ...

New Study Unveils How Plants Control the Production of Reactive Oxygen Species

Jan. 24, 2024 — Reactive oxygen species (ROS), though generally regarded as toxic byproducts of biological processes, serve many important functions in plants. However, the precise mechanism that plants use to ...

Study Offers Rare Long-Term Analysis of Techniques for Creating Standing Dead Trees for Wildlife Habitat

Jan. 23, 2024 — Ecologists have long known that standing dead trees, commonly referred to as snags, are an important habitat element for forest dwellers and act as a driver of biodiversity. They're so important ...

Candida Evolution Disclosed: New Insights Into Fungal Infections

Jan. 14, 2024 — Identification of genes under recent selection provides insights into the molecular mechanisms of human-related adaptation in Candida pathogens. The study reveals both known and novel genetic ...

Largest Diversity Study of 'Magic Mushrooms' Investigates the Evolution of Psychoactive Psilocybin Production

Jan. 9, 2024 — The genomic analysis of 52 Psilocybe specimens includes 39 species that have never been sequenced. Psilocybe arose much earlier than previously thought -- about 65 million years ago -- and the ...

Preventing the Destruction of Eucalyptus Forest Plantations: Naturally Occurring Pathogenic Fungi to Control the Eucalyptus Snout Beetle

Jan. 8, 2024 — Scientists have found naturally occurring pathogenic fungi infecting the Eucalyptus snout beetle in Eucalyptus forest plantations, and characterized them to develop a bio-pesticide for controlling ...

Microbial Awakening Restructures High-Latitude Food Webs as Permafrost Thaws

Jan. 3, 2024 — Wildlife biologists used a novel technique to trace the movement of carbon through Arctic and boreal forest food webs and found that climate warming resulted in a shift from plant-based food webs to ...

Discovery: Plants Use 'Trojan Horse' to Fight Mold Invasions

Dec. 21, 2023 — Scientists have discovered that plants send tiny, innocuous-seeming lipid 'bubbles' filled with RNA across enemy lines, into the cells of the aggressive mold. Once inside, different types ...

Genetics of Host Plants Determine What Microorganisms They Attract

Dec. 19, 2023 — Plants often develop communities with microorganisms in their roots, which influences plant health and development. Although the recruitment of these microbes is dictated by several factors, it is ...

Nature and Animal Emojis Don't Accurately Represent Natural Biodiversity

Dec. 11, 2023 — The current emoji library doesn't accurately represent the 'tree of life' and the breadth of biodiversity seen in nature according to a new analysis. A team of conservation biologists ...

Molecular Fossils Shed Light on Ancient Life

Dec. 7, 2023 — Paleontologists are getting a glimpse at life over a billion years in the past based on chemical traces in ancient rocks and the genetics of living animals. New research combines geology and ...

Fungus-Fighting Protein Could Help Overcome Severe Autoimmune Disease and Cancer

Dec. 6, 2023 — A protein in the immune system programmed to protect the body from fungal infections is also responsible for exacerbating the severity of certain autoimmune diseases such as irritable bowel disease ...

More Than 100 'Magic Mushroom' Genomes Point the Way to New Cultivars

Dec. 4, 2023 — Scientists have amassed genome data for dozens of 'magic mushroom' isolates and cultivars, with the goal to learn more about how their domestication and cultivation has changed them. The ...

Inoculation Against Diseased Fields

Nov. 30, 2023 — Farmland often harbors a multitude of pathogens which attack plants and reduce yields. A research team has now shown that inoculating the soil with mycorrhizal fungi can help maintain or even improve ...