Frugal or wasteful fungi? New paper looking into the persistence of wood decomposers' mycelia at the microscale.

Recently, we have been using microfluidic chip systems to examine whether fungi leave behind or recycle their own mycelium. By following the growth and persistence of fungal hyphae inside the chip systems, we have been able to quantify the speed and extent at which fungal mycelia grow and turn over. In our latest study, we show some first estimates of how much this can vary between fungal species.

Our results show that the six wood decomposers we examined separated into two groups: one group of species with a wasteful strategy that leaves behind a lot of inactive mycelium, and one group of species with a frugal strategy that recycles most of their mycelium quickly, as they grow.

Interestingly, the separation of the two groups also matches what we know about the ecology of the species examined. The wasteful species are known to colonize ephemeral wood substrates (such as twigs and branches) and therefore likely have shorter life cycles, while the frugal species colonize large logs and are thought to have longer life cycles. The recycling of their mycelia could therefore be part of a more long-term strategy in these fungi to preserve nutrients and reduce mycelial loss to grazing animals and competing microbes.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/04e8bb_1c88b8f36d254318a9e0912dc3b9de96/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

The research we are presenting shows that fungi can affect how much of their biomass (which is a carbon reserve in itself) will remain in wood (and subsequently in soil) and how much is recycled and immobilized by the organism.

We hope that this research can provide a starting point for examining mycelial persistence as a fungal trait and contribute to more detailed knowledge about fungal life strategies and fungal contributions to soil carbon sequestration.

Read all about it in our latest publication: "Differences in mycelial turnover and persistence of wood-decay fungi at the microscale".

Press release from Lund University in English and Swedish.

Of course, this was a team effort, with Roos-Marie van Bokhoven leading the way through her amazing, dedicated work in her Master's thesis project, and Dimitrios Floudas and I just enjoying getting to work and write together (and having impromptu meetings to discuss fungal ecology).