We know what amazing organisms mushrooms are. Present in all ecological niches, they are capable of cooperating and communicating chemically to defend themselves or conquer new environments, but also to forge close links (symbiosis) with other organisms, whether they are plants, animals, insects or other microorganismsmicroorganismsin order to ensure their own survival. In short, mushrooms are the kings of adaptation and we are certainly still far from having unraveled all their mysteries.
We could almost talk aboutintelligenceintelligence. And it’s not the new study that has just been published in the journal Fungal Ecology who will tell us otherwise. Researchers from Tohoku University and Nagaoka College have in fact conducted experiments on the ability of mushrooms… to make decisions! And their results are stunning.
Memory, communication, learning and even problem solving, they can do it all!
« You would be surprised to know what mushrooms are capable of », Explains Yu Fukasawa in a press release from Tohoku University. “ They have memory, they learn, and they are capable of making decisions. Quite frankly, the differences in how they solve problems compared to humans are mind-blowing. » An almost worrying statement which plunges us into a universeuniverse science fiction. But no, this is all real.
Researchers have in fact challenged fungi to find the most optimal way to colonize a space. To do this, they arranged a series of small wooden cubes containing mycelium in the shape of a circle or cross. As a reminder, the mycelium represents the “germinated” part of the spores. It can form very large interconnected networks within which information is shared in the form of a chemical signal. A bit like the neuronesneurones in our brains.
A capacity for decision-making and spatial organization
The scientists then observed the behavior of the mushrooms. Two solutions were possible: either the mycelium developed from each piece of wood, invading the environment in all directions from each of these points, or it developed following a more complex spatial organization.
And it is this second option that was observed. Instead of growing in all directions, the mycelium has in fact built a network which connects the nearest wooden cubes before leaving to colonize the world at specific points. For example, for the circle configuration, no filament passes through the center. The researchers explain this observation by the hypothesis that the fungi would see no interest in colonizing a small and already enclosed space. Indeed, the mycelium network always extends outwards from the pattern defined by the cubes. These astonishing results highlight the abilities of these microorganisms to communicate across the entire network and to define the most optimal colonization strategy possible.
For researchers, it is clear that our understanding of the mycological world is still excessively fragmented and that these organisms, neither plants nor animals, still possess unsuspected resources. Something to think about during a picking outing!
