In China, researchers at the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a flexible living textile based on Cordyceps militaris. The researchers grew C. militaris in liquid culture, where it formed spherical mycelial pellets composed of intertwined fungal filaments. After being collected and placed into moulds, the pellets naturally bonded […]
In Japan, some plants are thought to supplement their carbon needs by obtaining carbon through underground fungal networks connected to other plants. This symbiotic relationship is known as mycoheterotrophy. Researchers from Chiba University found evidence that Gentiana squarrosa, a Gentian family plant, can receive carbon through arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal networks in addition to photosynthesis. The […]
In Washington state, a University of Washington team developed a new system for turning coffee grounds into a paste, which they use to 3D print objects: packing materials, pieces of a vase, a small statue. They inoculate the paste with Reishi mushroom spores, which grow on the objects to form that mycelial skin. The skin […]
In California, the ability to genetically engineer plants is largely thanks to a microscopic helper: a bacterium called Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Agrobacterium in the wild causes damaging tumors in flowering plants, including some economically important crops, but its ability to insert its own DNA into host plants is what makes it both a pest to farmers […]
