Fomitopsis officinalis.
is very commonly used as the packing foam around electronics and other fragile items. Khan’s team is specifically looking for plastic-degrading fungi and claim to have discovered around 50 more species since 2017. Tey are currently working on finding the optimal conditions of temperature and environment for each strain of fungus to do its work.
Plastic alternatives Every bit as exciting as plastic-
degrading fungi are fungi that can create materials that are alternatives to plastic. We’re seeing more and more news articles on ways that fungi can be used to produce sturdy, sustainable alternatives to all sorts of building materials like wood, metal, and plastic, as well as stand-ins to textiles like leather and other fabrics. But a new finding suggests that Indigenous Americans were already making “mycotextiles” at least a century ago. Te study, published in Mycologia,
60 FUNGI Volume 14:4 Fall 2021
confirmed the fungal origin of two wall pockets crafted by a Tlingit woman in Alaska in 1903. Te artifacts were part of the collections at Dartmouth College’s Hood Museum of Art. Te original owner had labeled one of the pockets, found in the museum’s collection: “Pair of fungus bags. Wedding present from Indian neighbors.” Intrigued, Deborah Tear Haynes, the collections documentation manager, next spent years calling experts to confirm this identification—but none had heard of fungal textiles, and her inquiries attracted little interest. What WAS this material made of? Electron microscopy afforded a closer look. Te images revealed mycelia—intertwined threadlike fungal structures that permeate soil or wood and can form thick mats that are strong, supple and durable. “You can’t rip it apart with your hands; it’s just like leather,” says study co-author Robert Blanchette, a forest pathologist at the University of Minnesota and a frequent author of papers in FUNGI.
Ok, so definitely fungal … but which one? Comparing details of the mycelia with modern species descriptions, Blanchette determined that the bags were made from fruitbodies of Fomitopsis officinalis, also known as Agarikon—a wood decaying polypore well known from the Pacific Northwest. Te fungus was an important one for Indigenous people (and has been featured in FUNGI several times). It was used medicinally and spiritually all along the Pacific Northwest coast, 20th- century loggers described bandaging wounds with it, and the ancient Greeks used it to treat tuberculosis. Recent studies suggest agarikon extracts have antibacterial and antiviral properties, and they may even be effective in animals at treating some cancers. No biofabrication companies currently use agarikon mycelial mats. But Blanchette says they can be cultured in a laboratory, making this rare species a viable option for modern mycotextile applications, too.
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