Death cap mushrooms can reproduce solo, new study finds

Hi there 🍄 

This week’s highlights include a mushroom with 23,000 sexes and a reader question about Stropharia caerulea.

Death cap mushrooms can reproduce solo

A new study 🔬 led by Susana C. Gonçalves and Anne Pringle revealed that the deadly 'death cap' mushrooms can reproduce unisexually, a rarity in fungi. This may explain their aggressive, rapid spread in non-native regions like California. The death cap typically reproduces bisexually, but DNA analysis of California death cap mushrooms shows it can also reproduce solo, hinting at unexpected reproductive adaptability that could aid its invasion.

This is largely different from what researchers found in European forests, where DNA analysis confirmed the fusion of genetic materials from two parents. This finding poses significant ecological implications and sets the stage for further research into the reproductive strategies of invasive fungi, which could help amend our approach.

Read more about the study.

The world’s most sexually compatible organism

❤️‍🔥 The split gill mushroom redefines biological diversity with over 23,000 mating types, which allows for extensive genetic combinations and reduces inbreeding. Outstripping others like the fairy inkcap mushroom, which has 143 mating types, the split gill mushroom boasts the highest number of sexual types known in any organism, aiding in its adaptability and survival.

Found globally, barring Antarctica, these mushrooms thrive on decaying wood and have special gills that protect them during dry periods, allowing them to survive years without rain. Unlike most fungi, the split gill mushrooms around the world are so genetically similar that they're considered one species, a fact discovered by mycologist John Raper's groundbreaking research from the 1950s and 1960s.

Read more about split gill mushrooms.

Around the web

• 🧠 Our brains are as unique as our fingerprints, and inside our brains is a unique map of neural connections that make you you. The concept of brain fingerprinting maps the unique neural pathways of your brain, and scientists published a preprint that showed the moment consciousness was altered during a psychedelic trip. Through brain fingerprinting, it was clear how unique that experience is to each person.

• 🌀 On Science, Quickly, science journalist Rachel Nuwer talked to Matthew Baggott about synthetic psychedelics, the search to create them, and the ways researchers hope to diminish the downsides.

• 🍕It’s a pizza! On the ground! It’s a mushroom? A Redditor found a huge pizza-looking fungus and took to the forums to figure it out. While some guessed Reishi and Chicken of the Woods, no one quite knows what this massive and appetizing fungus is. Do you?

Featured artist: Tessa Gourin

These mushroom candlestick holders are made with attention to detail and an aesthetic that is all Tessa Gourin. Whimsy is grounded in chunky earthy shapes, and each ceramic mushroom has a personality all to its own. Her limited edition collections are handcrafted and full of colors as unique as the mushrooms they are.

Ask the shroomers 📣 

Deanna L. asked us about blue roundhead mushrooms this week. Are they psychoactive, are they edible, and does cooking them change their effects?

• 🔵 Stropharia caerulea is one of the few naturally blue-green mushrooms.

• 🥘 It’s not considered the tastiest edible species and can cause unpleasant gastrointestinal symptoms.

• ❌ While we’re not mushroom experts on that particular patch of mycelium, S. caerulea has been shown not to contain detectable amounts of psilocybin (Kristinsson 2008). Some authorities, however, have claimed to have found psilocybin in the species, though that hasn’t been corroborated by recent research.