{"id":2770,"date":"2025-01-27T13:01:27","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T18:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/?p=2770"},"modified":"2025-04-18T13:54:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T17:54:17","slug":"the-mysteries-of-the-mushroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/research-highlights\/the-mysteries-of-the-mushroom\/","title":{"rendered":"The mysteries of the mushroom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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David Hibbett, the Andrea B. and Peter D. Klein Distinguished Professor of Biology, has found himself part of a cultural phenomenon centered on the public\u2019s fascination with all things fungal, expressed in everything from pillow designs to the postapocalyptic HBO miniseries The Last of Us.<\/em> While mushrooms are having a moment, so too is Hibbett, as he explores the secrets of the world\u2019s fungi, taking students up the Ipswich River in Massachusetts to study the fungal genus Lentinus<\/em>. The project is supported by a National Science Foundation grant for which fellow biologist Javier Tabima Restrepo is co-principal investigator.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Professor<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cMushrooms are a window to a secret world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lentinus<\/em> offers a stunning glimpse of evolution in action. The species Lentinus tigrinus<\/em>, also known as the tiger sawgill, grows in a classic umbrella shape with gills that emit spores\u2014typical of mushrooms. To researchers\u2019 bemusement, it also grows in a puffball- like secotioid form, in which its gills are covered by a layer of tissue. These two forms are so distinct that they were once thought to be different species, but they\u2019re capable of mating, and appear side by side throughout North America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lentinus tigrinus <\/em>is a wood-decaying fungus that grows on trees such as willows, elms, and maples. It can be found on logs protruding from rivers. Hibbett and Tabima, a mycologist and evolutionary biologist who specializes in genomics and computational biology, are examining the genetic mechanism behind its two forms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to know how natural selection is working on those genes. There\u2019s something called \u2018balancing selection,\u2019 a model of natural selection that promotes the occurrence of two different forms in a population,\u201d Hibbett says. \u201cWe believe there may be some balancing selection going on here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hibbett and Tabima are collecting genome data, analyzing the section Tigrini <\/em>(which contains L. tigrinus<\/em>) to understand species limits and identifying the genetic region(s) responsible for the secotioid form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the team is assessing whether the genetic regions responsible for the secotioid form are part of positive selection, in which beneficial traits appear more commonly in a population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project should reveal valuable insights into the diversity of mushrooms and population genetics. \u201cMushrooms are a window to a secret world,\u201d Hibbett says, \u201cbecause they are so fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Department of BIOLOGY<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
School of climate, environment, and society<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For years, David Hibbett, the Andrea B. and Peter D. Klein Distinguished Professor of Biology, has worked to unlock the secrets of mushrooms. 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