(ORDO NEWS) — This poisonous mushroom was able to radically change its nature and is now spreading throughout North America at a catastrophic rate.
This fungus is killing dozens of people around the world and is now spreading across the US.
Of all reported fungal deaths worldwide, 90 percent are associated with just one extreme species from Europe: the fungus Amanita phalloides, the pale grebe.
Now the toadstool was found in North America and noticed that it began to spread across the continent with great speed.
Deadly mushroom in the USA
In its native ranges, A. phalloides creates new generations by combining genomes with each other. As it turns out, the pale grebe does not need a partner to reproduce.
A US study of A. phalloides by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that the fungus can produce spores using the chromosomes of a single individual.
The discovery is based on the genomes of 86 mushrooms collected in California since 1993 and in parts of Europe since 1978.
Among US specimens, pale grebes appear to be able to reproduce both sexually and asexually for at least 17 years, and possibly as much as 30 years.
Samples collected in 2014 from two different locations were found to contain the same genetic material, effectively making them clones.
In 2004, scientists also collected and studied one of the “species” of the toadstool, and then discovered a fungus with exactly the same genome ten years later.
Sexual reproduction allows species to evolve and adapt, introducing more genetic variation into a population.
But thanks to their asexual lifestyle, individual mushrooms can spread quickly and survive for years with absolutely no problems.
The researchers found that the genes in asexual spores collected in California from 1993 to 2015 did not differ much from sexual spores produced by the same species in the same region.
According to scientists, this means that individual pale grebes can live for years, breeding, until they find another individual to mate with.
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.