A 407 million-year-old mushroom declared the oldest pathogen

 

A funncial plant pathogen preserved in the fossil collections of the Natural History Museum has been identified as the oldest disease-causing fungus.

Potteromyces asteroxylicla, who is 407 million years old, has been named after the celebrated author of Peter Rabbit’s history and mushroom enthusiast, Beatrix Potter. The discovery is published in Nature Communications.

Beatrix’s drawings and his study on the growth of fungi, which in some cases advanced decades to scientific research, have earned him the reputation of being an important figure in mycology.

Potteromyces was discovered in fossil samples from Rhynie Chert, a fossil site in Scottland. The site is known to a community of early devonic plants and animals, including bacteria and fungi.

The new study, completed in collaboration with mycologists from the Royal Botanic Garden of Kew, suggests that fungi that cause diseases, such as ash, that currently decimate native ash in the United Kingdom, and fungi that can circulate the nutrients on which plants and other organism depend to survive, have a historical precedent in Potteromyces.

The Dr. Christine Strullu-Derrien, a scientist associate at Natural History Museum and lead author of the study describing the new species, say in a statement: “Although other fungal parasites have been found in this area before, this is the first case of one that cause a disease in a plant. Moreover, Potteromyces can provide a valuable point from which to date the evolution of different groups of fungi, such as Ascomycota, the largest fungal edge”.

Strullu-Derrien found the first Potteromyces specimen in 2015. Their reproductive structures, known as coniioforos, had a unusual shape and formation as had never been seen before.

Equally unusual was the fact that this mysterious fungus was found attacking an old plant called Asteroxylon mackiei. The plant had responded by developed dome-shaped growths, proving it must have been alive while the fungus attacked.

In order for the team to determine that it was indeed a new species, another case of the fungus needed to be found. This is because the nature of fungi differs greatly among individuals.

Confirmation was achieved when a second specimen was found in the collections of the National Museums of Scotland in another slide from Rhyne Chert.

Climate activists throw mud onto the facade of the Basilica of St. Mark in Venice

 

A group of environmental activists threw mud on Thursday on the facade of the Basilica of Sant Mark in Venice, in a protest that has resulted in the arrest of at least six people.

Several of these activists have used fire extinguishers to throw the mud on the south façade and a column of the basilica, located in the central Sant Mark square. Then several more have come together to display a banner on which you could read “Reparation Fund”, the campaign promoted by organization Last Generation.

The maintenance staff of the church itself have been able to clean up much of the dirt, although the architect of the basilica, Mario Piana, who has arrived at the site shortly after the incident, has harshly condemned this protest action, according to the RAI network.

The mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, has also expressed on social media his discomfort at an action he considers “very serious and shameful”, “it is legitimate to express discrepancies, but always with respect for the law and our cultural and religious heritage”, said Brugnaro, who criticized “vandalism” as a method of “finding solutions” in the field of the environment.