hyperfixational research and things i want to remember.
Looking at many trends in the sciences, it is clear that the decreased emphasis on whole-organism research in mycology and other fields is not simply an effect of advances in technology, but of underlying assumptions that permeate the scientific community and western culture in general. Compared to the interdisciplinary approach that fueled the research of many of history's great scientists, today's sciences are increasingly fragmented and largely unfamiliar with the finer details of each other's work. Many researchers in universities are so specialized within a tiny subset of their overarching department that it is difficult for them to be well-versed in the intricacies of other research projects in the department, let alone other departments, universities, or the scientific community at large.
A unique and important product of glomeromycotan fungi is glomalin, a sticky protein exuded on the surface of their mycelium. As these fungi move through the soil, this protein 'gloms' soil particles together. And as these clusters build in number, porosity and structure are created in the soil matrix. Glomalin therefore makes the soil fluffy yet stable, a quality that enables water and oxygen to easily penetrate the soil and allows beneficial oxygen-breathing microbes to survive at greater depths. At the same time, the binding action of glomalin, hyphae, and plant roots reduces erosion and topsoil loss. [...] Only the glomeromycotans produce glomalin, placing them as central designers in the creation of subterranean and aboveground ecologies.
Typically, spores (and cells in general) only contain one nucleus, which itself contains the DNA used to reproduce the parent fungus or organism. Glomeromycotan fungi, on the other hand, each contain an incredible suite of 800 - 35,000 genetically distinct nuclei in each of their spores. Many of these nuclei come from other microorganisms, including fungi of other phyla.This remarkable genetic collage is the reason why the glomeromycotan fungi can only be identified by their visible spore characteristics and hyphal structures: such a mixed bag defies accurate DNA sequencing, leaving mycologists with no molecular species concept for glomeromycotan fungi. Countless questions come from this singular phenomenon. As each spore germinates, which one takes the reins? Which guides the growth of the fungus and the many roles it plays as a mycorrhizal partner shared by countless plants? Is there a primary nucleus or do many (all?) act in concert? How did these nuclei accomodate and when? Does their diversity change over time? If so, how, where, and why are these nuclei spread?
The simplest answer would be that this genetic warehousing provides the fungi with an array of genetic 'options' from which to draw in response to environmental factors (an act known as epigenetic expression). However, the nuclear diversity of the glomeromycota provides for a wealth of genetic reserves that is more advanced that essentially all other eukaryotes. [...] ...this genetic resilience does add an evolutionary advantage that may account for the fact that the glomeromycota have hardly changed their form over the 450 million years of their recorded existence.
The Spitzenkörper is the true architect of a hypha. Taking in thousands of vesicles per minute, it rapidly sorts, processes, and then 'sprays' each vesicle toward the tip interior along thin filaments of the protein actin. However this is not a random shower, as occurs with a paint sprayer. It is a controlled act that precisely places each vesicle across the four dimensions of hyphal space and time. The rate of this process is staggering, with the Spitzenkörper in Neurospora crassa sending 600 vesicles to its apex every second.
As a hypha extends, it also branches 3-dimensionally. This branching occurs when a satellite Spitzenkörper separates from the main Spitzenkörper, migrates backwards, and, at some distance back, attaches to the side of the hypha to dissolve the existing wall and initiate a new hypha and direction for exploration. [...] A similar process also occurs during anastomosis. Whenever two hyphae from the same network encounter each other, their respective Spitzenkörpers will gather along the hyphal tips/walls and seamlessly dissolve and recombine the two mycelial paths into one, creating bridges between branches in the network.
In essence, mycelium is a mass of identical stem cells with the ability to continually adjust to a variety of conditions.
Where reductionist paradigms divide the world into simplistic parts, fungal systematics remind us that no life form or cycle can be untangled from its environment. It is only through the interactions of the various subset systems of the world (the 'sciences') that the reality we experience expresses itself as life.
Like all living beings, the soil takes in, transforms, moves, and releases nutrients for other organisms to consume. But, more critically, the soil is the central axis in these nutrient cycles. It is through soil that carbon, nitrogen, and many other elements complete their resurrection from decay back into living matter. [...] Soil cannot be created in a lab, nor should it be seen as the sum of its components. Indeed, the vast majority of soil organisms cannot be intentionally cultivated, their lives being inextricable from the soil body. The habitat of these microbes - the inanimate aspect of the soil web - is ancient, born over eons by the slow reduction of organic matter to small substances, collectively known as humus.
The robust digestive capacity of beetles is likely to be attributed to the hyperdiverse abundance of yeasts that inhabit the guts of these insects. It seems that all beetles contain dozens or hundreds of yeast species in their guts, some of which may descend from yeast lineages that are not encountered in other habitats. In a study from 2005, over 200 undescribed yeasts were found in the guts of beetles, representing over 30% of the known yeast species in the world.
that's this study but it's paywalled.
In 2015, researchers discovered that a stingless Melponini bee species from Brazil (Scaptotrigona depilis) intentionally cultivates a fungus as a necessary food source for its larvae. [...] This intentional spreading of the same fungal stock [between hives] seems to be the only example of a swarming insect species actively propagating a fungus from colony to colony.
referencing this paper, i believe. to read later.
Once mycelial thought is learned, it is impossible for it not to influence all of one's activities. Connections form easily and yet stay malleable enough to be revised as new information emerges. As the actions of this adaptive thinking process go on to affect the world, they are built upon by others, creating a feedback loop throughout a community. If sustained, these loops have the potential to build other systems, each with their own feedback loops, leading to an exponential increase in complexity and resilience in the metasystem.
It appears that during the seventh to fifth millenia, technological and social developments in Greece more or less kept pace with advances in the Near East and Egypt. By the end of the fifth millenium, however, in what is now Southern Iraq, changes had occured that would leave Greece and the rest of Europe far behind. [...] fourth-millenium Mesopotamia experienced an urban explosion: in 3000 BC, the Sumerian city of Uruk covered 500 acres, with a population of fifty thousand. [...] Greece would not see urban complexes that large for well over two millenia.
Greek replaced the earlier language(s) by the beginning of the Late Bronze Age [...] Such wholesale linguistic adoption would seem to imply either an overwhelming number of newcomers, which is unlikely, or political and military conquest. This remains a mystery.
In Minoan art [...] there are no scenes representing kings as heroic warriors and indeed very few, if any, images of royal pomp. The subjects and motifs of the wall paintings are plant and animal life and scenes of human activity, religious processions, or rituals.