- Sudden explosion of dangerous fungus Candida auris may be because of climate change, scientists say CBS News
- Dangerous fungus is becoming more prevalent. Scientists believe climate change could be to blame Yahoo News
- Florida ranks among top states for cases of this killer fungus WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando
- Fungus found in Florida, 28 other states, presents a ‘serious global health threat’: CDC WFLA
- Dangerous fungus becomes more prevalent, scientists say climate change could be to blame WJW FOX 8 News Cleveland
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Tag Archives: fungus
Plant Fungus Infects Human in First Reported Case of Its Kind – ScienceAlert
- Plant Fungus Infects Human in First Reported Case of Its Kind ScienceAlert
- This Human Is The First Man In The World To Be Infected By Rare Killer Plant Fungus | NewsMo India Today
- Man infected with killer fungus makes medical history – study The Jerusalem Post
- Kolkata man becomes world’s first victim of ‘killer’ plant fungus; Here’s all you need to know The Financial Express
- India has registered a global first of a plant fungus infecting humans; climate change, AMR will exacerbate it Down To Earth Magazine
- View Full Coverage on Google News
A fungus known for killing trees has infected a human for the first time, causing a pus-filled abscess to grow in his throat – Yahoo! Voices
- A fungus known for killing trees has infected a human for the first time, causing a pus-filled abscess to grow in his throat Yahoo! Voices
- ‘Pandora’s Box’: Doctors Warn of Rising Plant Fungus Infections in People After ‘First of Its Kind’ Case VICE
- ‘Last of Us’: Step-by-step story of how an Indian mushroom hunter became first victim of rare fungal Silver Leaf disease Firstpost
- In Its First Ever Jump to Humans, A Fungus Infects Kolkata Man | Weather.com The Weather Channel
- Mycologist becomes first person in the world to contract a plant fungal disease msnNOW
- View Full Coverage on Google News
A fungus known for killing trees has infected a human for the first time, causing a pus-filled abscess to grow in his throat – Yahoo News
- A fungus known for killing trees has infected a human for the first time, causing a pus-filled abscess to grow in his throat Yahoo News
- Mycologist becomes first person in the world to contract a plant fungal disease msnNOW
- ‘Pandora’s Box’: Doctors Warn of Rising Plant Fungus Infections in People After ‘First of Its Kind’ Case VICE
- In Its First Ever Jump to Humans, A Fungus Infects Kolkata Man | Weather.com The Weather Channel
- ‘Last of Us’: Step-by-step story of how an Indian mushroom hunter became first victim of rare fungal Silver Leaf disease Firstpost
- View Full Coverage on Google News
What Cordyceps, The ‘Zombie’ Fungus On ‘The Last Of Us,’ Is Like IRL
If we’re to believe HBO’s zombie apocalypse series The Last of Us, the end of humankind comes via the tentacles of a creepy-looking, brain-infecting fungus called cordyceps.
As with so many terrifying scenarios, the germ-gone-wild depicted in the hit show has roots in the real world.
Cordyceps fungi are real organisms that are most at home in warm, humid climes. They take over the minds of ants as well as certain spiders, moths, locusts, and other arthropods, but thankfully, not humans.
“The fungus attacks insects that live in the ground or soil,” said Rebeca Rosengaus, an associate professor and behavioral ecologist at Northeastern University. “Ants are one but there are also grasshoppers, spiders, locusts.”
Cordyceps’ official name is Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, and yes, scientists call it the “zombie-ant fungus.” It doesn’t spell the end of humankind, but it certainly does spell a grisly end for the creatures it infects.
Here’s how it works: The ant (or other arthropod) ambles innocently out of its nest, looking for food and blissfully unaware that cordyceps spores are raining down from a nearby tree or stem or branch.
The spores latch onto the ant (or other creature), releasing digestive enzymes to break down the insect’s cuticle (hard outer shell). Threadlike growths, known as mycelia, start growing inward and eventually take over the insect’s brain, which start producing neurotransmitters that affect brain function. The transformation is complete: The ant begins to stumble and convulse, acting in a way that benefits cordyceps.
“The fungus basically hijacks the brain so the ants stop doing what ants do and start doing what the fungus wants it to do, which is climb up the tree trunk,” Rosengaus said. Once they’ve reached the treetops, the ants bite the stem or leaf in what’s known as a death grip.
“That’s the last thing they do before the fungus starts growing from the neck or the head of the ant up,” Rosengaus said.
The ants die within six hours of infection, and then two to three days later, a fungal stalk emerges from the neck. Then, the spores start raining down again and the cycle repeats.
That’s life, at least for arthropods.
“Like many organisms on the planet, it does what it needs to do to replicate and continue reproducing,” said Dr. Scott Roberts, associate medical director of infection prevention at the Yale School of Medicine.
Could this ever happen in humans?
The Last of Us is real life for ants but not for humans — at least not yet, Rosengaus said, although she wouldn’t rule it out way down the line. “The fact that we don’t have a pathogen that has been able to come up with this strategy to hijack our minds does not mean that it’s not a possibility at some point.”
For now, though, this isn’t likely to happen in humans. “One of the reasons for that is that humans are warm-blooded,” Roberts said. “Most fungi and molds do not grow well in high-temperature environments.” Humans, which have a body temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, are most definitely inhospitable.
“The creators of the show have taken a very niche moment in nature and fictionalized it,” Roberts added. “It’s a popular, great TV show, but it’s not really a viable or realistic portrayal of what could happen.”
“I don’t think we ought to be worried,” William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University, said. “A fungus is a much higher order, a much more complicated germ than a virus, so it would be a much more complicated phenomenon for this fungus to jump species.”
Real-life dangers
Which is not to say that humans can’t be infected by organisms that typically infect other species.
“We do have zoonotic infections,” Roberts said. Mpox is a good example. So is COVID-19, which comes from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. “Often viruses and sometimes even fungi can be in another species and jump to other humans, but it usually needs progressive jumping back and forth [between humans and animals].”
Climate change is also introducing new dangers, including new fungi. One is a type of yeast called Candida auris.
The organism’s adaptation to warmer temperatures is thought to be the reason it now has a better chance of being able to survive in the human body. (This is also the reason The Last of Us writers use to explain why cordyceps can infect people.)
While Candida auris gravitates to your skin, it can cause bloodstream infections and is often spread in hospitals and other healthcare settings.
“If you’re healthy, it will stay on your skin and [even] go away, but if you have lines and catheters and have had surgeries, it can cause infections in wounds,” Roberts said. Those infections can spread not just to the bloodstream but also different organs, like the brain and heart.
“It’s a type of the candida species that has emerged with climate change,” Roberts said. “It is possible that other fungi and mold will evolve to survive and reproduce in warmer climates.”
Candida auris, which was first recognized only about 10 years ago, is already resistant to multiple drugs. It also spreads from person to person, unlike other types of molds or fungi that more often come from the environment, Roberts said.
As with most fungi, if you’re healthy, Candida auris isn’t likely to cause any harm. If you’re immunocompromised or otherwise in frail health, though, they can cause severe infections and that can even be potentially life-threatening.
Separating fact from fiction
There’s another entity hijacking our brains right now: science fiction–esque misinformation masquerading as fact.
As long as you realize The Last of Us and other shows are fiction, there’s no harm done.
“For decades, science fiction writers have taken basic ideas to an extreme. That’s part of the fun,” Schaffner said. “As wonderfully rich and extraordinary as real science is, there are real biological limitations, and this would be one of them. When it comes to real life, listen to public health. We’ll tie you to reality.”
It’s not like we need to look for things to worry about. “If you asked me whether this fungus or SARS-CoV-2 will be the end of us, one hundred times out of one hundred I’ll say SARS,” Roberts said.
‘It’s Real’: Nightmare Fungus From ‘Last Of Us’ Is Out There, Showrunner Says
When viewers finally did get to see the debut of the video game adaptation, many couldn’t help but wonder if the parasitic fungus that takes over humans and transforms them into mutant zombie-like creatures has any basis in reality.
“It’s real,” showrunner Craig Mazin told The Hollywood Reporter. “There are some remarkable documentaries that you can watch that are quite terrifying.”
He’s referring to footage showing how the Cordyceps fungus can essentially take over insects such as ants.
A 2019 report in National Geographic details how the fungus “infects a foraging ant through spores that attach and penetrate the exoskeleton and slowly takes over its behavior.”
“As the infection advances, the enthralled ant is compelled to leave its nest for a more humid microclimate that’s favorable to the fungus’s growth. The ant is compelled to descend to a vantage point about 10 inches off the ground, sink its jaws into a leaf vein on the north side of a plant, and wait for death.”
But don’t head out to your survival bunker yet.
“From a purely scientific point of view, would they do exactly to us what they do to ants? I don’t think so,” Mazin told THR. “I doubt it.”
In the show, climate change causes the fungus to mutate to infect humans. In reality, the Washington Post points out that humans are not only already exposed to many variations of the fungus, but that some people actively seek it out.
In fact, it’s found in health supplements.
“The fungus appears to hold some benefits for humans,” the newspaper said, adding that the Memorial Sloan Kettering website lists “improved strength and stamina, better kidney function and immune system boosts” as potential benefits… but cautions that readers speak to a doctor before trying it.
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Uh Oh, Scientists Figured Out How to Grow Terrifying Parasitic Mushrooms in the Lab
Just in time for Halloween, scientists in Korea say they’ve found a better way to grow an insect-destroying mushroom in the lab. Their work could make studying these fungi easier, which is important, since they and the chemicals they produce may actually have medicinal uses for humans, creepy as they are.
The fungi is known as Cordyceps. Members of this genus, along with a related but distinct genus called Ophiocordyceps, are parasitic, usually feeding on insects and other arthropods. These fungi will invade and often kill their hosts, though not before using them as fuel to grow their fruiting bodies (technically, this is the part of the fungi that we call the mushroom) and release new infectious spores into the world to start the process all over again. Some members of Ophiocordyceps are also known for “zombifying” their ant hosts by manipulating their behavior before death to ensure their optimal survival.
As horrifying as their way of life is, some members of Cordyceps are considered food in parts of Asia. They’ve also been used in traditional Chinese medicine and more recently are being sold as supplements (supplements of any kind, it should be noted, have little quality control and aren’t necessarily harmless). And early research has suggested that Cordyceps produce chemicals that could have beneficial health effects, particularly a compound called cordycepin. Some studies have indicated, for instance, that cordycepin might have anti-viral or cancer-fighting properties.
This research has largely come from animal or lab studies, though, meaning it will take a lot more evidence in humans to confirm any potential benefits. These experiments and any eventual widespread use of Cordyceps will also require having ample supplies of the fungi or their compounds, and that’s a challenge. Though these fungi are found throughout the world, they’re hard to find and harvest from the wild. There are now ways to cultivate them in the lab, but the current methods only yield low amounts of healthy Cordyceps or cordycepin, making them hard to scale up.
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Researchers at Chungbuk National University tried to improve on these methods, which usually use brown rice as the growth medium. They theorized that these mushrooms would grow better on richer sources of protein—namely, insects. They also guessed that their diet would affect how large the fungi grew and how much cordycepin they produced, so they tested out different types of insects. These insect nurseries were kept growing for two months before the researchers harvested the Cordyceps. The team’s findings, published Wednesday in Frontiers in Microbiology, suggests that their insect theory was right on the money.
“Cordyceps grown on edible insects contained approximately 100 times more cordycepin compared to Cordyceps on brown rice,” said study author Mi Kyeong Lee, a professor at Chungbuk, in a statement from Frontiers.
As expected, though, there were differences in how the insect food affected their growth. The fungi were most plentiful when they fed on mealworms and silkworm pupae, for instance. But they actually produced the most cordycepin when they fed on Japanese rhinoceros beetles. The team’s work also indicates that it was the fat content of the insects, not their protein, that predicted how much cordycepin the mushrooms produced. The rhinoceros beetles were especially full of a type of fat called oleic acid, and once the team introduced oleic acid to a low-fat insect feed, the Cordyceps’ production of cordycepin rose as well.
“The cultivation method of Cordyceps suggested in this study will enable the production of cordycepin more effectively and economically,” Lee said.
While these scientists may have found an improved method of growing Cordyceps in the lab, you probably shouldn’t expect mass production just yet. The authors note that churning out insects on an industrial scale isn’t easy, either. So if these freaky fungi do turn out to be medically valuable, there’ll be more challenges ahead in developing them for mass use. That said, there is at least one research team at Oxford University actively studying a modified version of cordycepin as a cancer drug in early human trials.
Fungus is telltale cancer sign, possibly screenable by blood test: Israel-US study
Hunting for fungus in the human body may offer a brand-new method for early detection of cancer, Israeli scientists suggest in new peer-reviewed research.
Working with colleagues in the US, they studied tumors from 17,000 cancer patients to document, for the first time, which fungi live in the tissue.
There has been very limited research until now on fungi in tumors, and scientists had assumed that its occurrence was rare. “We were surprised to find that it’s actually more common to find tumors with fungi than without,” said Dr. Ilana Livyatan of the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Her team created a groundbreaking “atlas” dedicated to this topic, and says it could be used to create new screening methods.
As DNA from fungi can be detected in blood, the scientists hope that blood analyses could one day be used by doctors to spot cancer.
The “atlas” outlines which fungi characterize 35 different types of tumor, so such tests could potentially go beyond flagging the existence of cancer and indicate where in the body it can be found.
“This could offer a new avenue for diagnosis of cancers using a simple blood test that detects fungi in tumors,” Livyatan told The Times of Israel.
“And beyond diagnostics, this could really shake things up in tumor research. This is one of these eye-opening moments that makes us revisit our assumptions about cancer, as fungi now represent a whole new consideration in analyzing tumors,” she explained.
In this magnified image from Weizmann Institute of Science researchers, fungi, represented in pink, are shown inside the cells of a human ovarian tumor, of which the cell nuclei are shown in blue (courtesy of Deborah Nejman and Nancy Gavert)
The peer-reviewed study, just published in the journal Cell, was a collaboration between the Weizmann Institute of Science and the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. Tel Aviv University and Sheba Medical Center also contributed to the research.
Over the last few years, scientists have started to pay more attention to the fact that tumors are home to large populations of microbes. There have been several important studies – including one by the Weizmann team – on patterns of bacteria in tumors, and this study puts the presence of fungi firmly on the research agenda.
The Weizmann-California team says that as well as opening up a potential new path to detection of cancer, their findings suggest that studying fungi in patients offers a treasure trove of information that could shape prognoses and treatment plans.
They found many correlations between fungi and survival chances. One was that when breast cancer patients have a specific fungus in their tumors — Malassezia globosa which is found naturally on the skin — this actually correlated with heightened chances of survival.
They also identified specific fungi among melanoma patients, which are found in higher quantities among those who respond well to immunotherapy compared to those who don’t.
The team behind the latest Weizmann Institute of Science research (left to right) Dr. Deborah Nejman, Dr. Nancy Gavert, Dr. Ilana Livyatan, Dr. Lian Narunsky Haziza and Prof. Ravid Straussman (courtesy of the Weizmann Institute of Science)
Weizmann’s Prof. Yitzhak Pilpel hopes that over the coming years, scientists will elaborate on the fungi-cancer relationships and explore how findings can be used to impact treatments. “This study sheds new light on the complex biological environment within tumors, and future research will reveal how fungi affect cancerous growth,” he said.
His colleague Prof. Ravid Straussman noted that the new study suggests that fungal activity is “a new and emerging hallmark of cancer,” commenting: “These findings should drive us to better explore the potential effects of tumor fungi and to re-examine almost everything we know about cancer through a ‘microbiome lens.’”
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Behold this award-winning image of fungus making a fly its “zombie” slave
Enlarge / The story of a conquest: The fruiting body of a parasitic fungus erupts from the body of its victim.
The striking photograph above vividly captures the spores of a parasitic “zombie” fungus (Ophiocordyceps) as they sprout from the body of a host fly in exquisite detail. Small wonder it won the 2022 BMC Ecology and Evolution image competition, featured along with eight other honorees in the journal BMC Ecology and Evolution. The winning images were chosen by the journal editor and senior members of the journal’s editorial board. Per the journal, the competition “gives ecologists and evolutionary biologists the opportunity to use their creativity to celebrate their research and the intersection between art and science.”
Roberto García-Roa, an evolutionary biologist and conservation photographer affiliated with both the University of Valencia in Spain and Lund University in Sweden, snapped his award-winning photograph while trekking through a Peruvian jungle. The fungus in question belongs to the Cordyceps family. There are more than 400 different species of Cordyceps fungi, each targeting a particular species of insect, whether it be ants, dragonflies, cockroaches, aphids, or beetles. Consider Cordyceps an example of nature’s own population control mechanism to ensure that eco-balance is maintained.
According to García-Roa, Ophiocordyceps, like its zombifying relatives, infiltrates the host’s exoskeleton and brain via spores scattered in the air that attach to the host body. Once inside, the spores sprout long tendrils called mycelia that eventually reach into the brain and release chemicals that make the unfortunate host the fungi’s zombie slave. The chemicals compel the host to move to the most favorable location for the fungus to thrive and grow. The fungus slowly feeds on the host, sprouting new spores throughout the body as one final indignity.
Those sprouts burst and release even more spores into the air, which go forth to infect even more unsuspecting hosts—what García-Roa calls “a conquest shaped by thousands of years of evolution.” Board member Christy Anna Hipsley praised García-Roa’s winning photograph for its “depth and composition that conveys life and death simultaneously—an affair that transcends time, space, and even species. The death of the fly gives life to the fungus.”
The winners and runners-up in individual categories are below.
Winner: Relationships in nature
Enlarge / Gone with the berry. Flying under the influence—a waxwing feasts on fermented rowan berries.
This image of a Bohemian waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus) feasting on fermented rowan berries is the work of ecologist Alwin Hardenbol, a postdoc at the University of Eastern Finland. Per Hardenbol, the birds love the berries so much that they will migrate to wherever the berries are most plentiful—not just Finland, but also Western, Eastern, or Central Europe. Waxwings can eat twice their own weight in rowan berries in a single day. The birds get sustenance, and the berries get to disperse their seeds.
However, “while this relationship is highly beneficial for seed dispersal, it does not come without a cost for the birds,” Hardenbol said. “As the berries become overripe, they start to ferment and produce ethanol which gets Waxwings intoxicated, sometimes leading to trouble for the birds, even death. Unsurprisingly, waxwings have evolved to have a relatively large liver to deal with their inadvertent alcoholism.”
Runner-up: Relationships in nature
Enlarge / Trachops & Tungara. A bat locates its dinner via tuning into a frog’s broadcast to attract a mate.
Alexander T. Baugh, a behavioral biologist at Swarthmore College, snapped this image of a hungry fringe-lipped bat (Trachops cirrhosis) feasting on a male tungara frog (Physalalamus pustulosus) at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. The bats’ hearing is fine-tuned to detect the low-frequency mating calls of the frogs, pitting natural and sexual selection against each other. And should their froggy prey prove to be of the poisonous variety, the bats’ salivary glands can neutralize the toxins in the skin.
Winner: Biodiversity under threat
Enlarge / The Baobab tree. The relationship between a group of African elephants and a Baobab tree strains as droughts strike.
Samantha Kreling of the University of Washington captured a trio of African elephants sheltering from the sun under a large baobab tree in Mapungubwe National Park, South Africa. The baobab tree has evolved to thrive in extremely dry climates by storing water in its trunk whenever drought strikes. Elephants, in turn, can dig into those trunks to get water to drink.
The image shows visible marks where the elephants have stripped the bark in search of precious water. Baobab trees have historically healed quickly from this kind of damage, but climate change has brought more drought, and the elephants have been stripping the bark faster than the trees can heal. The editorial board felt this image “highlights the need for action to prevent the permanent loss of these iconic trees.”
This Horrifying Zombie Fungus Forces Males to Mate With The Dead. Now We Know How
The fungus Entomophthora muscae has a survival strategy that’s both fascinating and potentially going to put you off your next meal: it infects and ‘zombifies’ female houseflies before sending out irresistible chemical signals encouraging male houseflies into necrophilia.
By luring these male flies into mating with zombified females, the fungus can transfer to the male fly and, in theory, have a better chance of further dispersal. The unlucky male fly is then taken over by E. muscae in the same way.
Crucial to the process is the release of sesquiterpenes, or chemical messages, which are synthesized in the female cadaver and sent out as a seductive signal. Based on the experiments carried out by the researchers, the longer the corpse has been dead, the more attractive it appears to be to the males.
“The chemical signals act as pheromones that bewitch male flies and cause an incredible urge for them to mate with lifeless female carcasses,” says evolutionary biologist Henrik H. De Fine Licht, from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
Once E. muscae has infected a female fly with its spores, it starts to multiply. After around six days, it can control the behavior of the insect, sending it up to the highest possible point (on a wall or a plant) before it dies. Fungus spores are then sent out from the dead fly, hoping to land on another.
But as this new study shows, by enticing a male over, E. muscae can ensure it passes into at least one more host, which will carry its spores far and wide again.
The team used a variety of chemical analysis and genetic sequencing techniques to figure out exactly what the fungus was doing, as well as exposing male flies to female partners at different stages of fungal infection, or that had died from other causes.
“Our observations suggest that this is a very deliberate strategy for the fungus,” says H. De Fine Licht. “It is a true master of manipulation – and this is incredibly fascinating.”
Tests showed that female fly corpses that had been dead for 3-8 hours attracted 15 percent of male flies, whereas with corpses that had been dead for 25-30 hours, that figure shot up to 73 percent. The more time that passed, the more chemical signals were released.
This isn’t the only time that scientists have observed sesquiterpenes being used to attract the attention of insects. As chemical signals go, it appears to be one of the most effective at manipulating these tiny creatures.
There are plenty of opportunities for further research here, not least into effective fly repellents – flies can infect humans with various diseases, and sesquiterpenes could be used to lure flies away from certain areas, such as where food is being prepared.
“This is where the Entomophthora muscae fungus may prove useful,” says H. De Fine Licht. “It might be possible for us to use these same fungal fragrances as a biological pest control that attracts healthy males to a fly trap instead of a corpse.”
The research has been published in the ISME Journal.