
The largest living thing on Earth is a fungus (2014) - bryanrasmussen
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141114-the-biggest-organism-in-the-world
======
marchenko
Between slime molds using reinforcement learning [1], and plants using a
fungal "internet" to communicate[2], fungi are interesting models for a lot of
network concepts.

[1][https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/12/the-
brai...](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/12/the-brainless-
slime-that-can-learn-by-fusing/511295/)

[2][http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141111-plants-have-a-
hidden...](http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141111-plants-have-a-hidden-
internet)

~~~
filoeleven
They are fascinating organisms, and the more we learn about them the wilder it
gets. Radiolab did an episode that talks about some of the things they do.
They present evidence that the fungal networks are what make forests possible,
and that fungi are not simply passive participants: in woodlands that are
affected by global warming, the fungi send nutrients from dying trees that are
not well-suited to a changing climate to different species which are better
equipped to survive the new temperatures instead of what they normally do,
which is to share the nutrients with young trees of the same species. They
essentially farm the plants whose nutrients they rely on.

Paul Stamets, mentioned briefly in your second linked article, has been doing
research into their antimicrobial and antiviral properties. A handful of soil
has hyphae that are only one cell wide, but something in the neighborhood of
miles long, so they are constantly being attacked by any number of organisms
and have developed advanced countermeasures that we can take advantage of to
fight the maladies that plague us. There are treatments available in Japan for
cancer, called PSK and PSP, which are essentially extracts from the Turkey
Tail mushroom. He has performed studies that show promise in combating colony
collapse disorder in bees with extracts from the garden giant fungus, which he
discovered by watching bees congregate to lick the mycelium.

Their networking concepts have been refined over millions of years, and are
undoubtedly worthwhile to study, but it seems that we are only beginning to
scratch the surface of what we can learn from fungi.

[http://www.radiolab.org/story/from-tree-to-shining-
tree/](http://www.radiolab.org/story/from-tree-to-shining-tree/)

~~~
deepvibrations
I stumbled upon Paul Stamets on Joe Rogan's podcast, which made a nice
introduction to the world of funghi- absolutely fascinating and exciting to
think of what else we may discover in this field in the coming years! For
anyone interested-
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPqWstVnRjQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPqWstVnRjQ)

~~~
filoeleven
Yes it’s a good interview. Though it got _very weird_ for a minute when he was
asked about the health issues with button mushrooms and refused to answer
because he said it put his life in danger. I wanna know what that’s all about!

------
kbutler
I thought it was an undecided contest between Pando (aspen grove) and the
humongous fungus.
[https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2014/05/08/310259300/a...](https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2014/05/08/310259300/a-question-
of-biggitude-what-s-the-largest-creature-on-earth)

For visual appeal and as a potential tourist destination, Pando wins hands
down (especially lovely in autumn). But I guess as a food supply, the fungus
wins.

~~~
ztjio
The argument against Pando is that it's fractured into many smaller parts that
are no longer connected.

~~~
jessriedel
It doesn't sound from the article like they've shown that the fungus is
connected, does it? Rather, they just got evidence that infections from
genetically identical funguses were ~2 km apart, and that genetically
identical funguses generally fuse together if they mechanically grow into each
other.

------
baxtr
I’m sure it is a normal human reaction, by my first thought was: can I eat
this thing? Embarrassing

~~~
krylon
A few years ago there was an article posted on Slashdot about Russian and
Japanese scientists cooperating on the attempt to clone a wooly mammoth.

About half the comments were about eating the mammoth and what it would taste
like. :)

~~~
fapjacks
Wikipedia does in fact say that the Holocene Extinction is an _ongoing_ event.
And really, how very cool and interesting that something our ancestors hunted
to extinction will be resurrected and eaten once more!

------
crazygringo
> _Biologists have long debated what constitutes an individual organism. The
> record-breaking A. solidipes clonal colony passes the test based on a
> definition of being made up of genetically identical cells that can
> communicate, and that have a common purpose or can at least coordinate
> themselves._

From the article, I'm unclear -- are all the cells _physically connected_ to
each other, or are they 1,000's of fruiting bodies which are genetically
identical and can communicate somehow but aren't all actually connected to
each other within the trees and among them, underground? (Even if some are
connected?)

Because if it's the latter, it doesn't feel like a single organism to me, any
more than communicating and coordinating with an identical twin would make two
people into one.

~~~
FRex
Even the 'identical twins' are not 100% genetically identical[0] and they
can't 'fuse' with each other like these fungi are and can. Humans also can't
asexually produce more of their own clones to cooperate with while these fungi
apparently can do both asexual and sexual reproduction with asexual one being
more common. Even if we could then our clones have their own central nervous
system and aren't enslaved by their genes to do the same as us and 'fuse' and
cooperate with us.

On the other hand, common bananas are sterile clones[1] but they are more
'separate' from each other and not 'fused' in any way (I guess? I have no
idea) then these bunches of fungus... But we are all over the Biological
Kingdoms (Animalia, Fungi, Plantae), methods of reproduction, human
intervention, 'fusing' and so on by now.

I'm not a biologist but I had very high level biology class with a really good
(and demanding..) retired biologist as the teacher and I still remember how
WTF this all gets (the entire Protista Kingdom which is just a bag of stuff
that doesn't fit elsewhere and varies a lot internally, the pseudo-life of
viruses, the scyphozoan jellyfish life cycle, concept of biological
immortality, etc.). Pluto planet debacle is nothing and a 100% clear cut case
with 0 controversy in comparison to this.

[0] - [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/identical-
twins-g...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/identical-twins-genes-
are-not-identical/)

[1] - [https://piecubed.co.uk/bananas-facts/](https://piecubed.co.uk/bananas-
facts/)

~~~
crazygringo
Thanks! That was really informative and helpful.

------
em3rgent0rdr
"The record-breaking A. solidipes clonal colony passes the test based on a
definition of being made up of genetically identical cells that can
communicate, and that have a common purpose or can at least coordinate
themselves."

Definitions...

~~~
contingo
As the article hints, the concept of an individual is a very slippery thing in
filamentous fungi. A single hyphal network can contain genetic material from
more than two parental spores, and while a bi-nucleate condition is typical
(in a "stable dikaryon"), genetically different nuclei can cohabit different
regions of the same mycelium at different times, and even established
nucleotypes can be completely displaced by newly-fusing types. This all leads
to quite different genetic situations from those that delimit individuals in
the usual sense.

In this study, somatic compatibility of isolates (their readiness to fuse into
a single mycelium) seems to have been interpreted as an indication of
clonality – that the isolates are completely genetically identical. (At least
it was by the BBC; the abstract of the linked paper, which is all I read of
it, is vague on this point.) That would make the determination that this is a
single individual fungus rather unassailable. But it's not clear to me at all
that we can assume things are so simple.

------
gweinberg
Anyone know how large the red delicious apple tree is?

~~~
Infernal
I was thinking the same thing. Or the Cavendish banana clones...

------
sillysaurus3
I wish we weren't confined to our local group. Imagine being able to go faster
than light and explore all the planets with unique wonders like this. Even if
we only found deadly flora, it would still be beautiful.

How many galaxies have the equivalent of fungus? All of them?

The most provocative answer is "one." But for us, it will always be true.

~~~
MichaelApproved
We are more confined than to The Local Group[1]. Andromeda, the closest galaxy
to us is in The Local Group and is 2.5 million light years away.

We are confined to our galaxy. In fact, we are confined to a small region of
our galaxy. It's 100,000 light years wide. Without faster than light travel,
very little is accessible to us.

[1] "The Local Group" is the name of a cluster of galaxies which are
gravitationally bound to each other. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is in that
cluster. When all other galaxies drift away from us in billions of years, the
local group will be the only thing visible to us.

------
todd8
Not the same thing but fascinating, in a similar way, nevertheless are the ant
super-colonies that stretch thousands of miles! See:

[http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8127000/812...](http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8127000/8127519.stm)

------
dan_mctree
If clonal plants count, could that mean that Henrietta Lacks (HeLa cells) is
technically worlds heaviest animal?

~~~
beambot
HeLa would fail the latter portion of the definition provided in the article:

> The record-breaking A. solidipes clonal colony passes the test based on a
> definition of being made up of genetically identical cells that can
> communicate, and that have a common purpose or can at least coordinate
> themselves.

~~~
jghn
And even if it didn't, the assumption that HeLa cells are actually identical
anymore is a bold one.

------
evantahler
... anyone see the old super mario movie?
[http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0108255/](http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0108255/)

------
chrischen
“genetically identical cells that can communicate, and that have a common
purpose or can at least coordinate themselves.”

Would a group of cloned humans constitute a single organism?

------
drdeadringer
Every time I read something like this I am reminded of the X-Files episode
featuring such an organism and I'm not sure what is imitating what.

------
thinkr42
If only we could use it to travel around the world instantaneously.

~~~
yitchelle
Why not the universe? (Star Trek Discovery reference, I assumed)

