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A local group is attempting to clean the waters in Corvallis’ Sequoia Creek — and potentially the Willamette River beyond it — using an unusual tool: mushrooms. The process used by volunteers with the Ocean Blue Project, an ecological restoration nonprofit, is to place mushroom spawn and a mixture of coffee grounds and straw in burlap bags that mushrooms can grow in, and then place the bags so that water entering storm drains will filter through them. The technique is attempting to take advantage of the natural ability of mycelium — the underground part of fungi — to break down...

This is Christian Derntl in the bio-lab.Lignocellulosic waste such as sawdust or straw can be used to produce biofuel – but only if the long cellulose and xylan chains can be successfully broken down into smaller sugar molecules. To do this, fungi are used which, by means of a specific chemical signal, can be made to produce the necessary enzymes. Because this procedure is, however, very expensive, Vienna University of Technology has been investigating the molecular switch that regulates enzyme production in the fungus. As a result, it is now possible to manufacture genetically modified fungi that produce the necessary...

An international team of scientists reveals that a unique strain of potato blight they call HERB-1 triggered the Irish potato famine of the mid-nineteenth century. It is the first time scientists have decoded the genome of a plant pathogen and its plant host from dried herbarium samples. This opens up a new area of research to understand how pathogens evolve and how human activity impacts the spread of plant disease. Phytophthora infestans changed the course of history. Even today, the Irish population has still not recovered to pre-famine levels. "We have finally discovered the identity of the exact strain that...

Credit: (left) Pbech/Wikimedia Commons; (inset) Dominik Stodulski/Wikimedia Commons The innocuous-looking harlequin ladybird (Harmonia axyridis, shown left) wields a biological weapon of mass destruction. Europe and North America imported the insects in the early 20th century to control pesky aphids. But the harlequin, native to Asia, began to flourish, crowding out the native seven-spotted ladybug (Coccinella septempunctata, shown inset). Scientists previously thought that the harlequin prospered because of an unusually strong antimicrobial immune system, which would protect it from disease in a foreign environment. But the beetle's more potent secret is a fungal parasite, in the insect-afflicting Nosema genus, which...

Imported African animals released into the wild spread chytridiomycosis. When improved pregnancy tests were developed in the 1960s, the advance came with an unexpected side effect: a role in the spread of chytridiomycosis, a lethal fungal disease that has wiped out hundreds of species of frogs. A study published in PLoS ONE this week tracks the amphibian fungus that causes the disease, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, to an important reservoir in the Americas — African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis)1. The frogs were used in pregnancy tests until the early 1970s, as it was known that the animals ovulated when exposed to a...

Organisms living on tree roots do lion’s share of sequestering carbon Sequestration may be questionable fiscal policy, but it means good news in the context of carbon cycles. Vast underground networks of fungi may sequester heaps of carbon in boreal forest soil, a study suggests. By holding onto the element, the fungi do the environment a favor by preventing carbon dioxide from escaping into the atmosphere and warming the planet. --snip-- But scientists have not understood where exactly trees put their carbon. The issue becomes important when researchers build computer simulations that track carbon cycling. “People talk about how plants...

Can you tell the difference between a tasty paddy straw mushroom and a toxic death cap? Emma Shiells talks to the experts about the potentially deadly chemistry hidden in those gills Death cap mushrooms are, as the name suggests, deadly © Science Photo LibraryOn a damp and drizzly autumnal morning you may think there are better places to be than foraging in the undergrowth of an orchard, but amateur mushroom hunters are sure to disagree with you. Martin Newcombe, an ecologist and fungi enthusiast, is one of those hooked.‘The fact that fungi can grow so quickly makes them fascinating,’ says...

Enlarge Image Greedy guest. Fungi (blue lines) living among the cells of a grass cause that plant to make more seeds and less pollen. Credit: Jennifer Rudgers Life demands tradeoffs, and plants are no exception. Virginia wildrye, common on U.S. prairies and rangelands, often plays host to a fungus that helps this grass grow. But the plant pays a price. Researchers have discovered that infected plants produce less pollen than their noninfected counterparts. Instead, the fungus causes the rye grass to make extra seeds, which transmit the fungus to the next generation and new locations. This is the first...

Having established the presence of fungi in the lungs of patients with asthma, researchers now hope this could lead to new lines of research and eventually, better treatments for sufferers. "In the future it is conceivable that individual patients may have their sputum tested for fungi and their treatment adjusted accordingly," says Hugo van Woerden of Cardiff University. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)CARDIFF U. (UK) — Healthy lungs are full of fungi, but some species are more common in people with asthma, new research finds. Hundreds of tiny fungal particles found in the lungs of asthma sufferers could offer new clues in...

Enlarge Image Fungal friend. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi produce hundreds of spores, such as the ones shown here, just outside the roots of a plant Credit: Shannon Schechter More than 80% of plant species make friends with a common fungus. In return for sugar, the fungus helps the plants extract nutrients from the soil. But rice plants, a primary food source for billions of people, don't have this special relationship—and thus they don't receive the extra boost the fungi give other plants. A new study suggests that with a little help from researchers, however, the fungus will bond with rice,...