7 ms·

If you're interested check the BBC for a documentary titled "The Magic of Mushrooms" - fascinating, and apparently we're descendants of mushrooms! :-)

freilanzer 4y ago
> apparently we're descendants of mushrooms That sounds very difficult to believe.
- xipho 4y ago
  Mushrooms are evolutionarily closer to animals than plants, so it's true in various ways. All life shares common elements, see the large and small mitochondrial subunits (rRNA). They are so critical to producing celluar energy that there are sequences are incredibly conserved, such that databases exists with aligments across life.
  - chasil 4y ago
    Plants have plastids, we do not, nor do fungi. There are several major types of plastids, and two are well-known: chloroplasts, and chromoplasts. Plastids emerged from symbiotic assimilation, as did the mitochondria. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastid https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastid
- jjulius 4y ago
  I couldn't find a written article that would encapsulate the referenced documentary with a cursory Google search, but the documentary is up in full[0] on YT if you'd like to better understand it. [0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7mdAS7KlRw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7mdAS7KlRw
- adaptbrian 4y ago
  'Animals and fungi are each other's closest relatives: congruent evidence from multiple proteins' https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8265589/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8265589/
- di456 4y ago
  Digestion is external for mushrooms, and it evolved to be in animals' internal organs. The signals that mushrooms send to each other through their mycelium network have the same physical and chemical mechanisms as the brain and neurological networks. (Mushroom is a small part of the overall organism, it's just the fruiting body)
  - TheSpiceIsLife 4y ago
    Technically, the inside of the mammalian digestive system is outside of the body.
    - di456 4y ago
      Interesting, could you elaborate? Is it because the digestive tract is isolated from the rest of the body? Almost like the body was built up around it?
      - TheSpiceIsLife 4y ago
        In the sense that the inside of the digestive system is contiguous with the skin. You can trace a path from, say, the back of your knee, through the intestines, and out to your eye lid, as you can trace a path from any point on a the outside of a torus. We're just a very complicated doughnut. It's something a medical scientist type I studied under was fond of saying, and I find it a useful model
        di456 4y ago
        That is wild to think about, thanks for explaining!
- idiotsecant 4y ago
  If that sounds very difficult to believe you might also be shocked to learn that we are descendants of single cell organisms as well! That's how it works.
  - lioeters 4y ago
    I call her Grandma LUCA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_universal_common_ancestor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_universal_common_ancestor
  - freilanzer 4y ago
    That's obvious, but not a very interesting usage of "descendants" or "relatives"...
- uplifter 4y ago
  It’s definitely not true because mushrooms are a type of multicellular fungi and the animal and fungal branches of life split off long before multicellularity arose.

freilanzer 4y ago

> apparently we're descendants of mushrooms That sounds very difficult to believe.

xipho 4y ago
Mushrooms are evolutionarily closer to animals than plants, so it's true in various ways. All life shares common elements, see the large and small mitochondrial subunits (rRNA). They are so critical to producing celluar energy that there are sequences are incredibly conserved, such that databases exists with aligments across life.
- chasil 4y ago
  Plants have plastids, we do not, nor do fungi. There are several major types of plastids, and two are well-known: chloroplasts, and chromoplasts. Plastids emerged from symbiotic assimilation, as did the mitochondria. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastid https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastid
jjulius 4y ago
I couldn't find a written article that would encapsulate the referenced documentary with a cursory Google search, but the documentary is up in full[0] on YT if you'd like to better understand it. [0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7mdAS7KlRw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7mdAS7KlRw
adaptbrian 4y ago
'Animals and fungi are each other's closest relatives: congruent evidence from multiple proteins' https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8265589/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8265589/
di456 4y ago
Digestion is external for mushrooms, and it evolved to be in animals' internal organs. The signals that mushrooms send to each other through their mycelium network have the same physical and chemical mechanisms as the brain and neurological networks. (Mushroom is a small part of the overall organism, it's just the fruiting body)
- TheSpiceIsLife 4y ago
  Technically, the inside of the mammalian digestive system is outside of the body.
  - di456 4y ago
    Interesting, could you elaborate? Is it because the digestive tract is isolated from the rest of the body? Almost like the body was built up around it?
    - TheSpiceIsLife 4y ago
      In the sense that the inside of the digestive system is contiguous with the skin. You can trace a path from, say, the back of your knee, through the intestines, and out to your eye lid, as you can trace a path from any point on a the outside of a torus. We're just a very complicated doughnut. It's something a medical scientist type I studied under was fond of saying, and I find it a useful model
      - di456 4y ago
        That is wild to think about, thanks for explaining!
idiotsecant 4y ago
If that sounds very difficult to believe you might also be shocked to learn that we are descendants of single cell organisms as well! That's how it works.
- lioeters 4y ago
  I call her Grandma LUCA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_universal_common_ancestor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_universal_common_ancestor
- freilanzer 4y ago
  That's obvious, but not a very interesting usage of "descendants" or "relatives"...
uplifter 4y ago
It’s definitely not true because mushrooms are a type of multicellular fungi and the animal and fungal branches of life split off long before multicellularity arose.