Important fungi in science

Fungi are overshadowed many times by other famous scientific discoveries, but the truth is that they are the unsung heroes of many important breakthroughs in history. Fungi contributed to discoveries in a wide diversity of scientific fields ending in a reshape and understanding of life, health, industry and environment!

Medical Marvels

Fungi gifted humanity with some of the most transformative medical discoveries in history.

Penicillum Notatum

In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered the world's first antibiotic by accident when he returned from holidays and found that the bacteria he was studying was contaminated by mold that was killing the bacteria, he called that mold "Penicillum".

At the time called Penicillum Notatum, and now renamed Penicillum chrysogenum, this was the fungus that change the world when penicillin started to get extracted and applied in healthcare.

Fleming focused on the topical potential of penicillin for wounds and surface infections, later his colleagues Howard Florey and Ernst Chain revealed that penicillin could be used in a wide variety of bacterial diseases.

Penicillin was first used during World War II to treat wounded soldiers. Its discovery led to the development of a wide range of antibiotics.

It was referred as “The greatest healing agent of this war”, it treated the first patient of septicemia which depleted the entire supply of penicillin in USA

The Pearl Harbor attack marked the need for mass production of penicillin, resulting in 2,3 million doses for the D-Day invasion of Normandy in 1944.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae

In the world of microbiology, few organisms have been as instrumental as Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Commonly known as baker's yeast, this single-celled fungus has made profound contributions to science, industry, and our daily lives.

With its unique properties and versatility, S. cerevisiae continues to be a cornerstone of research and innovation.

Suspected to be used for millennia in bakery and brewery, with only empiric knowledge applied to it, it was only in the 19th century that Louis Pasteur firstly observed its microorganism nature.

Since then, S. cerevisiae is used in many appliances like the production of biofuels and as a model organism in scientific research, including studies of aging and DNA repair

Due to this it was adopted as a model organism for research because:

• Is a small single cell very easy to be cultured and it grows very fast

• Can be easily manipulated and allows the insertion or depletion of genes

• It has internal structures similar to plants and animals

In 1996, S. cerevisiae became the first eukaryotic organism to have the genome fully sequenced.

It is still used for studies on genetics, cell biology, and molecular biology. Insights gleaned from S. cerevisiae have paved the way for breakthroughs in various fields.

This versatile microbe has been harnessed for the large-scale production of insulin, vaccines, and bioethanol, contributing significantly to the pharmaceutical and energy industries.

Neurospora crassa

N. crassa was first was first developed into an experimental organism for genetics and molecular biology by Dodge in the late 1920s.

In 1941, George Beadle and Edward Tatum used N. crassa for the development of molecular biology and the "one gene-one enzyme" hypothesis, a groundbreaking concept in genetics that laid the groundwork for our understanding of the genetic code. This led to the foundation of genetic research and biotechnology.

This filamentous fungus has not only played a crucial role in scientific research but has also contributed to our understanding of genetics, circadian rhythms, and molecular biology.

The study of N. crassa has illuminated the fascinating world of circadian rhythms. Geneticists discovered that the fungus exhibits circadian rhythms in its growth and asexual reproduction. This finding has had profound implications for understanding how biological clocks function in various organisms, including humans.

It also helped uncover the mechanisms behind gene expression and regulation, and it is convenient for mutagenesis, complementation tests and mapping, this was of huge importance is developing molecular biology

Lately, its electrochemical properties have been connected to a green-way of producing batteries

It was found that it can change manganese chloride into a compound containing manganese oxides, which can be used as electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries. This is still in development.

Fungi are also essential in:

Biotechnology: for enzyme production, biofuel development, and genetic engineering

Ecology: They impact ecosystems as decomposers, mycorrhizal symbionts, and bioindicators of environmental health.

Food industry: Fungi are crucial in fermenting food and beverages like bread, beer, and cheese.

Environmental Science: Fungi are used in mycoremediation to detoxify pollutants.

Team Let's Biologue

References

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Aramayo, R., Selker, E. U., Allis, D., Caparros, M.-L., Jenuwein, T., & Reinberg, D. (2013). Neurospora crassa, a Model System for Epigenetics Research. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology, 5(10), a017921. https://doi.org/10.1101/CSHPERSPECT.A017921

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Lahue, C., Madden, A. A., Dunn, R. R., & Smukowski Heil, C. (2020b). History and Domestication of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in Bread Baking. Frontiers in Genetics, 11, 584718. https://doi.org/10.3389/FGENE.2020.584718/BIBTEX

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