Mycology

Mycology is the study of fungi, including mushrooms, molds, and yeasts. Fungi are unique lifeforms that have specialized eukaryotic cells. This means that most fungi are multicellular organisms that have an organized nucleus. However, some fungi are single-celled organisms. The study of fungi is useful for many reasons. Certain types of fungi can be used to create medicines, such as the antibiotic penicillin. Other fungi can be harmful to humans and plants, so mycologists study these dangerous organisms to try to find ways to prevent or destroy them.

Background

Organisms are divided into five kingdoms, fungi being one of them. Although some people believe that fungi are types of plants, these organisms do not have chlorophyll, meaning they cannot use energy from the sun to create their own food. This makes them distinct from green plants. Instead, many fungi break down dead organic material to obtain their nutrients. They decompose deceased animals and plants. Other fungi are parasites, meaning they obtain nutrition by living in or on a host organism. These types of fungi are usually harmful to the animal, person, or plant they have invaded.

There are four main types of fungi: conjugating fungi (zygomycota), sac fungi (ascomycota), club fungi (basidiomycota), and imperfect fungi (deuteromycetes). Conjugating fungi reproduce sexually, and the resulting organisms are mostly landbased, although some water species are similar to algae. There are six hundred types of conjugating fungi, which can cause black bread mold and potato blight. Sac fungi also reproduce sexually via a spore-filled sac. Some foods and molds, including the delicacy truffles and the blue-green mold often seen on cheeses and fruits, are examples of sac fungi.

Club fungi are similar to sac fungi, as they also reproduce sexually via spores. Mushrooms, toadstools, and puffballs are classified as club fungi. Some of these types of fungi can cause hallucinations if ingested, and various cultural groups have used them for religious purposes over the years. Club fungi known as rusts and smuts can also cause agricultural diseases in grains. Imperfect fungi do not reproduce sexually. Species of imperfect fungi can be both harmful and beneficial to humans. Some forms of imperfect fungi can lead to infections, such as athlete’s foot. However, others can be used to help fight illness. For example, the most widely known and useful product to come from imperfect fungi is the antibiotic penicillin, which Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming first discovered in the mold Penicillium notatum in the late 1920s.

Overview

People have been using fungi for millions of years without really understanding the science behind these organisms. Mushrooms have long been used as food, and yeast has been used to make bread and beer. People in China may have been growing mushrooms as far back as 600 CE, but the process only took hold in France during the seventeenth century. This is around the same time that scientists began studying fungi. English scientist Robert Hooke was the first person to examine fungi under a compound microscope in 1667. In the 1680s, Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek observed yeast budding under a microscope. Italian botanist Pier Antonio Micheli is considered the father of modern mycology for his work in illustrating more than nine hundred fungi in his book Nova Plantarum Genera in 1729. Micheli also observed fungi under a microscope and understood the role spores played in fungi reproduction.

Much of the early research into mycology involved agricultural diseases that came from fungi. French amateur scientist Mathieu Tillet correctly identified a cure for the blackening of wheat in the 1750s, winning a prize from the Bordeaux Academy of Arts and Sciences. Although Tillet did not identify the fungus that caused the disease, the scientists that did identify the responsible fungus named it Tilletia in his honor. Investigation into mycology, specifically into diseases affecting agricultural products, continued throughout the nineteenth century.

In 1854, French biologist Louis Pasteur observed that the yeast cells in beer and wine that turned out well were of a certain shape. The cells in beer and wine that had soured were a different shape. Pasteur experimented and determined that heating wine could prevent the problem. This was the start of pasteurization. Jens Jensen, a Dutch schoolteacher, also utilized the heating technique in the 1880s. He found that heating potato tubers could kill the blight mycelium (fungus) inside them. Jensen later used the same heating technique for grain seeds to help prevent the disease known as loose smut.

The next major breakthrough in mycology came when Alexander Fleming observed that a fungal spore had contaminated his sample of Staphylococcus aureus (a bacterium). The fungus produced Penicillium notatum, which killed the bacteria. Fleming published his findings, which allowed scientists Howard Walter Florey and Ernst Boris Chain to continue investigating the fungus’s antibacterial properties. Their team spent a year working on the project. Finally, they were able to isolate the antibacterial substance and then experiment with the substance on mice. Eventually, the two were able to get large quantities of the antibiotic penicillin produced, and it proved to be effective in treating a wide range of bacterial infections, including diphtheria, pneumonia, and meningitis. For their efforts in identifying one of the most important medicines in history, Florey, Chain, and Fleming shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945.

Throughout the twentieth century and into the new millennium, scientists continued to explore mycology and the ways that fungi are both beneficial and harmful to humans, animals, and plants. Mycologists discover new fungi each year and investigate the roles they play in the environment.

These scientists are also interested in how fungal infections affect human health. People can get fungal infections in various ways, so tracking how fungal infections are acquired is one aspect of mycology. Many mycologists who study fungal infections in humans also look for ways to prevent or treat these conditions by developing new medications.

Another aspect of mycology is looking into the origins of fungi on Earth. So far, mycologists have been able to find fossil evidence that suggests that fungi existed as far back as 360 to 410 million years ago. This means that fungi were present on land long before other organisms had established themselves outside the ocean. As mycology expands, scientists will continue to look for ways that fungi can benefit humans, the economy, and the planet.

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