In the later eighties , a team result by James Anderson of the University of Toronto Mississauga discovered that a single dearest mushroom ( Armillaria gallica ) occupied at least 37 hectares ( 91 land ) of woodland in the upper Michigan Peninsula thanks to its tremendous surreptitious meshwork of fungous fibers . Writing in Naturein 1992 , the scientists advise that the remarkable colonial being – later nickname the “ humongous fungus ” – was one of the human race ’s largest and most ancient being , approximate it to be at least 1,500 years old and 100,000 kilograms ( 220,462 pound sign ) in mass .
Now , over 20 long time later , Anderson and his original co - authors have an update . Based on field surveys and advanced genetic analyses carry between 2015 and 2017 , they think that the mushroom-shaped cloud , known as C1 , report 70 hectare ( 173 acres ) , is at least 2,500 age previous , and count 400,000 kilograms ( 880,000 pounds ) .
" I view these estimates as the lower bound , " Anderson said in astatement . " The fungus could actually be much older . However , we recall we have circumscribe its entire dimensions , which was n’t the case in 1992 . "
plant in temperate forests of North America , Asia , and Europe , Armillaria gallicahas evolved to act as both a parasite and saprophyte of wood tissue , meaning it begins its feast by infecting a living tree diagram and continues gaining nourishment until it discontinue down the last rest nutrient in its dead host . To find novel food sources , the ambitious fungus continually weave through the soil by growing networks ofmyceliumthat are organized into with child , base - corresponding aggregations calledrhizomorphs . When rhizomorphs encounter wood , their hypha ( branching filum ) secrete enzyme that break down works cell wall and chemical that curb the horde ’s resistant system .
But verifying C1 ’s biographical details with mod technology was not the group ’s only goal . The new investigation also search to compare C1 ’s genome to fungous reference point genomes and search how fast mutation arise in its cells . The latter subject is particularly interesting give that the being must clone itself repeatedly to reach its tremendous size of it , yet despite the many opportunity for inherited mishap to occur , it quell healthy for centuries .
harmonize to their findings , presently usable onbioRxiv , A. gallicaindividuals have unbelievably stable genome , and even when mutations occur , they rarely bear on the fitness or appearance of subsequent mycelium generations .
“ What we believe that tells us is that there must be some mechanism by which the fungus protects itself from mutations , " Anderson said .
In addition to any likely DNA mending conjuring trick , he speculates a compounding of other several factors may do into frolic . First , besides its fruit bodies – the above - ground development we conceive of as mushrooms – A. gallicaexists solely underground , where it is protected from mutation - get UV radiation syndrome . secondly , the rhizomorph crest is propel forward through the filth in a way that necessitates the least potential amount of cadre partition , and third , it is possible that the fungus has a scheme for how DNA stands are distributed after they are double .
“ InArmillaria , this would mean that jail cell in the rhizomorph tip would hold back the older DNA , whereas the subtending cells ( committed to local , dead - ending growth ) would receive the new DNA , " the team wrote . " In this agency , the rhizomorph tips perpetuate the lineage would keep on fewer mutations than cells trust to local differentiation . ”
They reason out that it would be interesting to read the fungi ’s DNA care appendage to attain brainstorm into cancer , but this will have to be done without Anderson . The emeritus biota prof retreat after this research was complete .
