Mushrooms can adapt to global warming, like in The Last of Us

Team Duke University scientists showed that global warming may potentiate fungal infections. The study in question was recently published, coinciding with the premiere on HBO and HBO Max of the series based on the video game. Last of us. Since this is a chronicle of the apocalypse caused by a fungus that changes its behavior due to changing of the climate, the results can be somewhat alarming. But you must take into account a few things.

Studies have not been conducted on humans, but in laboratory cultures and in mice. Moreover, the authors themselves admit that fungal infection they are not contagious Last of us and furthermore that, in principle, they would only pose a danger to people with a weakened immune system or with other pathologies.

Logically, these people don’t deserve to get sick either. However, even if global warming caused fungal infections, there would be many more of them. easier to stop than a virus. Should results be considered? Yes, but without panicking.

Fungal infections and global warming

There’s something true in the plot Last of us. This is because humans are protected from many fungal infections simply because our body temperature is too high for them. It’s not quite the same as shown in the series. In the first chapter, in a flashback from the 1960s, an epidemiologist explains that fungi that can cause epidemics can only live up to 34°C. It’s something very fluid, you can’t generalize like they do. But it is true that our body temperature is not suitable for most. Yes for some. After all, fungal infections they are not something alien to our species.

With this in mind, the authors of a study recently published in PNAS I wanted to check if the increase in temperature can really affect fungal behavior. For this, samples were taken Cryptococcus deneoformans, a pathogenic fungus that can cause anything in humans, from pneumonia to meningitis. They were placed in laboratory conditions and heated. from 30°С to 37°С.

So they saw that heating could affect their DNA, especially transposonsbetter known colloquially as jumping genes. These are pieces of DNA that can move from one part of the genome to another, changing the way other genes are expressed. That is, they can use genes that would normally be silent under certain conditions. Or otherwise.

Specifically, they observed movement in three genes called T1, Tcn12 and Cnl1. The effects are not entirely clear; but at least they seem to contribute fungal drug resistance.

Cryptococcus colony

mouse tests

All this was observed when growing C. deneoformans in the laboratory. But it remains to be seen what happens if these fungal infections occur in living organism. So they set about repeating the experiment. mouse infection.

Again, this activity started in the jumping genes. Moreover, in animals it turned out to be much more intense. AND only 10 days after fungal infection. All of this leads scientists to believe that heat stress promotes mutation and somehow helps fungi adapt to their environment.

Failures of fungal infections in Last of us

Fungal infections are transmitted through disputes. For example, in the case C. deneoformansspores are inhaled, which can enter the environment with the faeces of other infected animals.

The biting transmission that appears in the series, as we have already seen on this medium, makes little sense. This is actually an advantage, since the spores are much larger than the virus, so it would be much easier to stop the spread with measures such as masks. As long as the population used them, of course.

In any case, despite the results of this investigation, no need to be afraid of such an apocalypse as Last of us. Fungal infections in humans are nothing new. Yes, they may worsen due to global warming, but more research will be needed to know to what extent. Also, if that happened, they would be relatively easy to contain.

However, there are already some fungi that are resistant to antifungal drugs that affect vulnerable patients, for example in hospitals. You must pay attention to all this. And this is already being done, in fact. In addition, we can watch the series without worrying about parallels with reality. Although where we come from, it sometimes seems difficult to avoid them.