Discover a new group of omnipresent mushrooms

2011/07/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Botanika
• Ekologia
• Biologia

A group of researchers from the Exeter University of Great Britain have discovered a group of fungi so far unknown. The group is called cryptomycota (hidden fungi), although until now no one found them for being anywhere. In fact, once localized, and once their characteristic DNA sequences have been identified, they have been searched in DNA databases previously collected in other media and found in salty, sweet and dry media. In addition, they have seen that the newly discovered group has as much diversity of genes as all known fungi. The research has been published in the journal Nature.

During the study of microbial DNA extracted from a pond in the city of Exeter, researchers encountered the new group of fungi. With these sequences they created a phylogenetic tree, that is, a diagram of how some species were separated from others from genetic similarities, and saw that an unknown branch, a new filum, emerged.

Unlike other fungi, newcomers do not have chitin on the walls of cells. The lack of chitin has made scientists think that these fungi can be phagotrophic parasites, that is, they put food inside the cell and digest it inside. Known fungi are osmotrophic and include digested food by osmosis. Chit-rich walls help control the inputs and outputs of minerals and food. The phylogenetic tree points out that these two forms of food, and therefore the two types of fungi, were distributed very early in evolution.