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Surprised no one has already mentioned climate change. The truly terrifying thing is that the reason fungi have not been a big threat to humans is that there w

Surprised no one has already mentioned climate change. The truly terrifying thing is that the reason fungi have not been a big threat to humans is that there was not evolutionary pressure for them to thrive in human body temperatures. Now, due to the warming climate there is immense pressure. As fungi evolve to adapt to the warming climate, they are evolving to be able to infect and kill us.

eggy 4y ago
Yes, climate change is the culprit for all ills, or at least that's what you read everywhere ;) Climate change was mentioned on "The Last of Us" episode 1, at the start. Aside from fictional references, there are fungi that can grow outside of 70-90F up to 130-150F. I believe COVID and people rushing to the hospital emergency room for everything instead of going to their PMC may have had something to do with this fungus finding purchase to infect more people.
- idontwantthis 4y ago
  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6650554/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6650554/
  - eggy 4y ago
    << it may be the first example of a new fungal disease emerging from climate change, with the caveat that many other factors may have contributed.>> Significant or not? <<many other factors may have contributed>> <<The most enigmatic aspect of the rise of Candida auris as a human pathogen is that it emerged simultaneously on three continents, >> I would be interested to know if COVID happened everywhere around the same time relatively speaking, with people self-quarantining while all running to the emergency room of hospitals, might explain the "enigma" above.
    - wahern 4y ago
      Yeah, that paper is trash. There's zero evidence provided. In fact, they literally suggest that somebody else should find evidence to support their conclusion: > The hypothesis that C. auris broke the mammalian thermal barrier through adaptation to climate change suggests several experimental lines of investigation to obtain evidence for and against it. Nonetheless, they still cite to earlier papers (multiple!) of theirs to argue that they "predicted" their current speculative conclusion; for example, > Given the capacity of fungal species to adapt to higher temperatures and the fact that many fungal species that are currently nonpathogenic species are likely to have the necessary virulence attributes by virtue of their survival in soils, we previously hypothesized that climate change would bring new fungal diseases And in case anybody missed it (as I did, initially), the entire body of this "paper" is under the header, "OPINION/HYPOTHESIS".
edgyquant 4y ago
Because that’s ridiculous and literally the plot of the Last of Us. There are fungi that live in the human body already. What do you think a yeast infection is?
- gorpy7 4y ago
  Some of us haven’t seen the show yet ! :-(
  - marton78 4y ago
    Don't worry, this is explained in the first 5 minutes of the first episode.
  - xeromal 4y ago
    The game and concept of infection came out in 2013 so it's a lil past the spoiler quarantine.
- idontwantthis 4y ago
  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6650554/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6650554/
explaininjs 4y ago
Any source besides "climate change bad"? Plenty of areas have hovered around 98 degrees Fahrenheit for at least some part of the year for a very long time, I haven't seen any correlation between those areas and fungal outbreaks, or even any data that says the global sum person-time in areas that are around 98 degrees is going up.
- idontwantthis 4y ago
  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6650554/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6650554/
  - explaininjs 4y ago
    Something not titled "OPINION/HYPOTHESIS", perhaps?
- TylerE 4y ago
  "some part of the year" makes a huge difference. Hard for much evolution to occur when your entire colony gets wiped out every winter.
  - explaininjs 4y ago
    Isn't the new schtick "global climate change", where extreme temperatures are more common? Seems like that'd be an argument against climate change favoring this fungus thing.
    - TylerE 4y ago
      It's complicated. There is warming occurring, on average, overall, that's indisputable at this point. Variation is also increasing. (Or to restate it... things have gotten spiky...the average is trending up, but the increase in variation is such that the lowest lows are lower than they were in the past.
gorpy7 4y ago
How would this happen? can you give an example? are you saying the climate is getting closer or passing through our body temperature range and so they want to jump in to our regulated bodies?
- idontwantthis 4y ago
  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6650554/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6650554/
s1artibartfast 4y ago
I think this premise is false and misunderstands how Evolution works. Evolution works by opportunity, not by pressure. Organisms do not choose to evolve because their habitat is degraded. They don't "try harder" under pressure. The opportunity to infect humans has always existed for a suitable mutation. Climate change does not make advantageous mutation more likely to happen.

eggy 4y ago

Yes, climate change is the culprit for all ills, or at least that's what you read everywhere ;) Climate change was mentioned on "The Last of Us" episode 1, at the start. Aside from fictional references, there are fungi that can grow outside of 70-90F up to 130-150F. I believe COVID and people rushing to the hospital emergency room for everything instead of going to their PMC may have had something to do with this fungus finding purchase to infect more people.

idontwantthis 4y ago
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6650554/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6650554/
- eggy 4y ago
  << it may be the first example of a new fungal disease emerging from climate change, with the caveat that many other factors may have contributed.>> Significant or not? <<many other factors may have contributed>> <<The most enigmatic aspect of the rise of Candida auris as a human pathogen is that it emerged simultaneously on three continents, >> I would be interested to know if COVID happened everywhere around the same time relatively speaking, with people self-quarantining while all running to the emergency room of hospitals, might explain the "enigma" above.
  - wahern 4y ago
    Yeah, that paper is trash. There's zero evidence provided. In fact, they literally suggest that somebody else should find evidence to support their conclusion: > The hypothesis that C. auris broke the mammalian thermal barrier through adaptation to climate change suggests several experimental lines of investigation to obtain evidence for and against it. Nonetheless, they still cite to earlier papers (multiple!) of theirs to argue that they "predicted" their current speculative conclusion; for example, > Given the capacity of fungal species to adapt to higher temperatures and the fact that many fungal species that are currently nonpathogenic species are likely to have the necessary virulence attributes by virtue of their survival in soils, we previously hypothesized that climate change would bring new fungal diseases And in case anybody missed it (as I did, initially), the entire body of this "paper" is under the header, "OPINION/HYPOTHESIS".

edgyquant 4y ago

Because that’s ridiculous and literally the plot of the Last of Us. There are fungi that live in the human body already. What do you think a yeast infection is?

gorpy7 4y ago
Some of us haven’t seen the show yet ! :-(
- marton78 4y ago
  Don't worry, this is explained in the first 5 minutes of the first episode.
- xeromal 4y ago
  The game and concept of infection came out in 2013 so it's a lil past the spoiler quarantine.
idontwantthis 4y ago
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6650554/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6650554/

explaininjs 4y ago

Any source besides "climate change bad"? Plenty of areas have hovered around 98 degrees Fahrenheit for at least some part of the year for a very long time, I haven't seen any correlation between those areas and fungal outbreaks, or even any data that says the global sum person-time in areas that are around 98 degrees is going up.

idontwantthis 4y ago
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6650554/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6650554/
- explaininjs 4y ago
  Something not titled "OPINION/HYPOTHESIS", perhaps?
TylerE 4y ago
"some part of the year" makes a huge difference. Hard for much evolution to occur when your entire colony gets wiped out every winter.
- explaininjs 4y ago
  Isn't the new schtick "global climate change", where extreme temperatures are more common? Seems like that'd be an argument against climate change favoring this fungus thing.
  - TylerE 4y ago
    It's complicated. There is warming occurring, on average, overall, that's indisputable at this point. Variation is also increasing. (Or to restate it... things have gotten spiky...the average is trending up, but the increase in variation is such that the lowest lows are lower than they were in the past.

gorpy7 4y ago

How would this happen? can you give an example? are you saying the climate is getting closer or passing through our body temperature range and so they want to jump in to our regulated bodies?

idontwantthis 4y ago
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6650554/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6650554/

s1artibartfast 4y ago

I think this premise is false and misunderstands how Evolution works. Evolution works by opportunity, not by pressure. Organisms do not choose to evolve because their habitat is degraded. They don't "try harder" under pressure. The opportunity to infect humans has always existed for a suitable mutation. Climate change does not make advantageous mutation more likely to happen.