Green Options » fungus

Scientists Force Fungus to Have Sex to Create Biofuel

Bryan Nelson — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 01:58:20 +0000

Austrian scientists are putting the ‘fun’ in ‘fungus’ by forcing organisms which are usually asexual to have sex instead.

The hope is that the fungus would then be easier to breed, which would allow researchers to create organisms that are more efficient at degrading cellulose for the purpose of making biofuel.

How to Save Fruit and Vegetable Biodiversity? Just Eat It.

John Chappell — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:41:12 +0000

How do you save dying species of agriculturally valuable plants and animals? The answer may be as simple as what’s on your dinner plate.

A recent article outlined the “eat ‘em to save ‘em” method of biodiversity protection. Simply put, rare varieties of plants and animals can be saved if consumers demand them. Asking your grocer, chef, or farmers market vendor about heirloom and endangered varieties is a great way to demonstrate that the demand exists for these diverse crops.

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Massive Infestation of Beetles Threatens Mountain Pines in Western U.S.

Michael Ricciardi — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:38:14 +0000

A major infestation of the mountain pine beetle, a scourge stretching from New Mexico, in the U.S., to British Columbia, Canada, has been turning vast areas of formerly green pine forests to rust red, and slowly killing them.

The beetle infestation has been growing “exponentially” since 2006-07, according to the Forest Service management team in Laramie, Wyoming, and has so far claimed millions of acres of pine forest in Montana, Colorado, and Wyoming. North of the border, British Columbia has already lost over 33 million acres of lodgepole pine forest due to the ravages of this type of bark beetle. And more recently (in 2008), Alberta province is come under threat due to an aberrant wind storm that apparently lofted the beetles across the continental divide.

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Global Wheat Crop Threatened by Rust Fungus - African Seeds May Offer Hope

Michael Ricciardi — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:45:40 +0000

You may not have heard of Ug99 yet, but, if its rapid spread continues unchecked, chances are you will not only be hearing about it, but you’ll be paying for it too. That’s because this fast-spreading strain of the fungus that causes stem rust–a seemingly unstoppable plant disease–and is now spreading around the globe and threatening to devastate the world’s wheat harvest.

One hopeful remedy may in fact lay in certain native, durum wheat species (”landraces”) found only in certain African nations–in particular, Ethiopia–which are believed to possess “slow rusting” genes. These native durum wheats are stronger (durum is Latin for “hard”) than7 other strains and originally evolved under much different environmental conditions than European and Western Hemisphere varieties. These durum landraces have most likely evolved slight gene variations as a result. These variations in gene sequences (and/or their expression in the wild), it is believed, can confer survival advantages to the plants when transplanted in a different locale.

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The Mysterious, Disappearing Honey Bee

Lisa Wojnovich — Sun, 31 May 2009 23:51:53 +0000

Honey bees are disappearing. The story has been in the news on and off since 2006, but for one reason or another, most people have paid little attention. And the situation is significantly dire.

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Fungus Discovered That Makes Diesel from Cellulose

Sarah Lozanova — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:51:32 +0000

The setting for this discovery sounds like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. A fungus that grows in Ulmo trees in the Patagonian Rainforest is the source of a significant discovery.

“This is the only organism that has ever been shown to produce such an important combination of fuel substances,” said Professor Gary Strobel from Montana State University. “The fungus can even make these diesel compounds from cellulose, which would make it a better source of biofuel than anything we use at the moment.”

Like many scientific breakthroughs, scientists stumbled upon this discovery by accident.

“Gliocladium roseum lives inside the Ulmo tree in the Patagonian rainforest. We were trying to discover totally novel fungi in this tree by exposing its tissues to the volatile antibiotics of the fungus Muscodor albus. Quite unexpectedly, G. roseum grew in the presence of these gases when almost all other fungi were killed. It was also making volatile antibiotics. Then when we examined the gas composition of G. roseum, we were totally surprised to learn that it was making a plethora of hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon derivatives. The results were totally unexpected and very exciting and almost every hair on my arms stood on end!”

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Fungi Discovered in Patagonia Rainforest Could Be Used to Make Biodiesel

Andrew Williams — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:44:00 +0000

American scientists have discovered a fungus deep in the Patagonian rainforest that makes biodiesel as part of its natural lifecycle. The fungus is the only organism that has ever been shown to produce such an important combination of fuel sources.

According to team member Prof. Gary Strobel of Montana State University, “The fungus can even make these diesel compounds from cellulose, which would make it a better source of biofuel than anything we use at the moment.”

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Fungi Locks Away Dangerous Depleted Uranium

Max Lindberg — Tue, 06 May 2008 01:45:39 +0000

That fungus among us may be the answer to uranium-polluted soils eventually being brought back into use.

Researchers at Dundee Unversity in the UK have determined that fungi can block uranium from finding its way into plants, animals or the water supply.

Scientists have found that what they call free-living and plant fungi can, “colonise depleted uranium surfaces and transform the metal into uranyl phosphate minerals”.

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