Is there something like an inherent shape of a fungus?
What does a fungal mycelium really look like?
In a previous post I shared my musings about fungi in 3 dimensions — a small dream of mine to see the organisms I have been working on for about 30 years in real 3D. Recall that fungi are actually made for growing invasively into a substrate, rather than on the surface of it, and thus a Petri dish culture system with agar is fundamentally not what this is about.
When I talk to people in the lab about this (and in a recent conversation with Corrado Nai this also came up), the response I have been getting is: well, these fungi will respond to their environment, so the mycelium in 3 D will just reflect the environmental pattern, for example gradient or the physical structure of the environment. And I believe this is absolutely true.
What I am after, though, is something I could call the ‘inherent’ shape of a fungus (its mycelium) when growing unimpeded in some substrate. No, this will not really happen in reality, since there will always be some gradients (or neighbors) to respond to. But this would be the shape of the organism that is directly reflective of its developmental program and basic biology.
Why would this be interesting? I can think of a number of reasons:
It would be very interesting if one could observe differences in this inherent shape among different species of fungi. Are they really all growing spherically, as is commonly assumed, or do some grow into a different shape? Even if they all grow spherically, what is the internal structure of this sphere like? Where exactly do they sporulate? Is the density of hyphae the same everywhere in this sphere? Is metabolic activity the same everywhere? How does the sphere change over time, how does the recycling work within the sphere? Is there any relationship of some of the structures and patterns we see on the 2-D Petri dish individuals with this 3-D shape? Like, are there ‘arteries’ or other specific kinds of transport infrastructure within the spherical entity? How does the sphere interact with other spheres in the vicinity?
These are all interesting questions, and I believe the answer is unknown to all of these.
What would be needed? The challenge is to have a growth substrate that does not offer any gradients or physical structure. And you would need to inoculate ideally in the center of this substrate, to be able to see how the mycelium expands in all directions. Ideally, this growth substrate would be transparent. I don’t know anything that fits this description.
I regularly advertise in my fungal biology course that if you come up with an idea that works, I will finance your PhD, entirely. But so far, no success. Maybe it can’t be done?
But it would be so cool! And I’m sure we can at least make some steps in the right direction.
This is an absolutely fascinating question! What about using AI to predict mycelial growth to potentially reveal the inherent shape of a fungus?
Also, what about using Gelrite as a clear substrate: https://www.duchefa-biochemie.com/product/details/number/g1101
This gel is very clear when set. Might it be possible to fill a round bottom flask with Gelrite, so you essentially have a sphere of gelin contained in glass and then with a long, thin needle inoculate into the middle of the Gel, so that the fungal inoculum is growing from the center of the gel "globe"? One could then image the mycelium in the gel as it grows out from the center. Just a thought.
Why does the Universe, emerging from a dimensionless speck, lack symmetry and resembles a cobweb of empty space, tangled dust, gas, matter and energy? Is there an inherent shape to a universe? If the birth is not perfectly symmetric in energy distribution, then immediately the expansion acts upon itself to create more asymmetries- turbulence if you will. Now looking at fungi growth from that perspective- Is there ever a perfect seed spore in terms of the initial geometry (for one)? What role does gravity play? Have growth experiments been conducted at the I.S.S.? This is all very fascinating to an outsider! Nature has had a billion years of ceaseless experiments in optimizing fungal growth and survival. Why do we not see more meso-scale fungi? Predation can't be the answer. Very interesting stuff!