What do a loaf of bread, a glass of wine and a wedge of Camembert topped with cremini mushroom compote have in common? Other than a lovely meal on a chilly autumn afternoon, these foods were all made possible with fungi!
Humans have been benefiting from fungi for thousands of years: from foraging and fermentation to immune stimulation and spiritual journeys. And the future looks promising for humans to harness even more goodness from fantastic fungi.
A Foray into the World of Fungi
More closely related to animals than plants, fungi first appeared about one billion years ago. Yet we still don’t know very much about this third kingdom of eukaryotic organisms. Nearly 150,000 species of fungus have been identified so far, but it has been estimated there could be as many as 3.8 million fungal species in existence.
Diversity of fungal species.
The fungal kingdom is wildly diverse with species ranging in size from one thousandth of a centimetre (the tiny single-celled Microsporidia) to one thousand hectares (the humongous Armillaria), and everything in between. The structure of a fungus can be relatively complex: aside from single-celled organisms, fungi are made up of a mycelium. Mycelia are interconnected networks of branching filaments called hyphae. For most of the time, a fungus lives its life underground or inside decaying tissues. Here, the mycelium releases enzymes to break down and absorb nutrients from the surrounding environment. Once the fungus has absorbed enough nutrients, it will reproduce by releasing spores. This happens either asexually through branches of the mycelium, or by producing a sporocarp after mating, otherwise known as a mushroom!
Feasting on Fungi
Mushrooms are a familiar sight to most of us with more than 10,000 species of sporocarp-producing fungi found around the world. Humans have been feasting on mushrooms and fungi for thousands of years; 13,000-year-old archaeological evidence from Chile shows humans interacted with edible species of fungi. In China, consumption of wild fungi was documented hundreds of years BCE and there are even references to eating truffles (the fungi, not the chocolates) in the Bible.
Learning to forage for wild mushrooms to eat is a skill that has been passed down from generation to generation in many cultures. It is very important to learn how to differentiate the tasty mushrooms from the poisonous and undesirable ones – of the thousands of mushroom-producing fungi, only about 350 species are edible. Traditionally, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican (and ancient Mesoamerican), Russian, Indian, and other central Asian cultures were particularly skilled mushroom foragers. Today, this fungus-loving phenomenon has created a global edible mushroom market worth US$42 billion per year.
If you are looking to expand your wild mushroom palette, fungus expert Dr. Jianping “JP” Xu recommends foraging for Golden Chanterelles, Giant Puffballs or King Boletes. These fungi are all delicious and common in Southern Ontario, but be sure you are confident in your identifications!
A collection of foraged mushrooms.
An alcoholic beverage fermenting with yeast.
Less visibly familiar, but equally important to human culture are the microscopic fungi. These help us make beer, wine, bread, cheese, soy sauce and all kinds of other fermented delicacies. Dating back millennia, different peoples independently harnessed the power of the single-celled yeast fungus to convert sugar into ethanol and carbon dioxide. With this chemical reaction, alcoholic beverages and leavened bread were produced. We have also co-opted other microscopic mould fungi to ripen cheese and cured meats. It has even been found that evolutionary lineages of these moulds have been shaped by our cheese-making industries!
The Magic of Medicinal Mushrooms
Food isn’t the only way humans have benefitted from fungi throughout history. Many different cultures have and still continue to use fungi for medicinal and spiritual purposes. Whether in Africa, Asia, Australia or the Americas, many different types of mushrooms have been used by indigenous peoples for centuries to treat myriad illnesses, including infections and cancers. Although the use of mushrooms in traditional medicine is longstanding, little research has gone into uncovering exactly why and how mushrooms treat illnesses.
As it turns out, when our bodies come into contact with beta-glucans, one of the main building blocks of all mushroom cell walls, they stimulate an immune response. This triggers additional healing processes in our bodies, leading to improved outcomes when faced with infection or disease. More research is now underway to learn how to incorporate the underlying molecular mechanisms of these traditional fungal remedies into modern medicine.
Amanita muscaria growing in a forest.
Traditional healing practices involving fungi did not stop at the patient. In many cultures, shamans would consume hallucinogenic mushrooms to transcend spiritual boundaries and collect knowledge, diagnose illnesses and make prophecies. Across Siberia and Central Asia, the fairy tale red and white Amanita muscaria mushroom has been used for thousands of years as a spiritual healing tool, with references in ancient Vedic scripture to its consumption by gods and warriors.
Some also say modern-day Christmas has origins in the pre-Christian winter solstice celebrations in Northern Eurasia which centered around the harvest and consumption of A. muscaria. It could even be the reason Santa Claus has rosy cheeks and travels in a flying sleigh! Similarly in Central America, both ancient and contemporary Mesoamerican Indigenous tribes use many of the Psylocybe species of hallucinogenic mushrooms in shamanic healing practices and ritual ceremonies.
The Future of Fungi
Although humans have widely benefited from fungi already, we are just beginning to uncover all the different ways they can shape our lives for the better. In addition to using fungi as sources of antibiotics (notably Penicillin), antifungals, immunostimulants, immunosuppressants, statins and analgesics, research is underway to engineer yeast to produce other medicines like insulin. Fungi are also being used to make sustainable materials to replace things like leather, Styrofoam and plastic. What’s more, systems for large scale decomposition and oil spill clean-up are working to harness fungi’s nutrient recycling powers for more sustainable remediation and waste-management purposes.
So, next time you are enjoying a pint of your favourite beer, take a moment to appreciate the fungus which helped produce it and thank your lucky stars that fungi are here to help solve so many of today’s problems.