Nineteenth Century Shaman Grave Guardians are Carved Fomitopsis Officinalis Sporophores

Fungal mycelial mats used as textile by indigenous people of North America

The indigenous people of the United States and Canada long have used forest fungi for food, tinder, medicine, paint, and many other cultural uses. New information about historical uses of fungi continues to be discovered from museums as accessions of fungi and objects made from fungi collected over the last 150+ years are examined and identified. Two textiles thought to be made from fungal mats are located in the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, and the Oakland Museum of California. Scanning electron microscopy and DNA sequencing were used to attempt to identify the fungus that produced the mats. Although DNA sequencing failed to yield a taxonomic identification, microscopy and characteristics of the mycelial mats suggest that the mats were produced by Laricifomes officinalis. This first report of fungal mats used for textile by indigenous people of North America will help to alert museum curators and conservators as well as mycological researchers to their existence and hopefully lead to more items being discovered that have been made from fungal fabric.

Medicinal Properties and Bioactive Compounds from Wild Mushrooms Native to North America

Mushrooms, the fruiting bodies of fungi, are known for a long time in different cultures around the world to possess medicinal properties and are used to treat various human diseases. Mushrooms that are parts of traditional medicine in Asia had been extensively studied and this has led to identification of their bioactive ingredients. North America, while home to one of the world's largest and diverse ecological systems, has not subjected its natural resources especially its diverse array of mushroom species for bioprospecting purposes: Are mushrooms native to North America a good source for drug discovery? In this review, we compile all the published studies up to September 2020 on the bioprospecting of North American mushrooms. Out of the 79 species that have been investigated for medicinal properties, 48 species (60%) have bioactivities that have not been previously reported. For a mere 16 selected species, 17 new bioactive compounds (10 small molecules, six polysaccharides and one protein) have already been isolated. The results from our literature search suggest that mushrooms native to North America are indeed a good source for drug discovery.

Notes, outline and divergence times of Basidiomycota

The Basidiomycota constitutes a major phylum of the kingdom Fungi and is second in species numbers to the Ascomycota. The present work provides an overview of all validly published, currently used basidiomycete genera to date in a single document. An outline of all genera of Basidiomycota is provided, which includes 1928 currently used genera names, with 1263 synonyms, which are distributed in 241 families, 68 orders, 18 classes and four subphyla. We provide brief notes for each accepted genus including information on classification, number of accepted species, type species, life mode, habitat, distribution, and sequence information. Furthermore, three phylogenetic analyses with combined LSU, SSU, 5.8s, rpb1, rpb2, and ef1 datasets for the subphyla Agaricomycotina, Pucciniomycotina and Ustilaginomycotina are conducted, respectively. Divergence time estimates are provided to the family level with 632 species from 62 orders, 168 families and 605 genera. Our study indicates that the divergence times of the subphyla in Basidiomycota are 406–430 Mya, classes are 211–383 Mya, and orders are 99–323 Mya, which are largely consistent with previous studies. In this study, all phylogenetically supported families were dated, with the families of Agaricomycotina diverging from 27–178 Mya, Pucciniomycotina from 85–222 Mya, and Ustilaginomycotina from 79–177 Mya. Divergence times as additional criterion in ranking provide additional evidence to resolve taxonomic problems in the Basidiomycota taxonomic system, and also provide a better understanding of their phylogeny and evolution.

Antimicrobial properties of Fomitopsis officinalis in the light of its bioactive metabolites: a review

Fomitopsis officinalis, also known as Laricifomes officinalis, is a medicinal polypore used for millennia (Agarikon) to contrast several diseases, particularly the pulmonary ones. A rich literature has dealt with its ethno-mycological aspects, but isolation and chemical characterisation of single compounds has only recently significantly developed, as well as in vitro tests for bioactivity. According to several reports there is evidence of a broad-spectrum antibacterial and antiviral activity by F. officinalis, including pathogens like Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and Staphylococcus aureus, as well as Ortopox virus. Chlorinated coumarins from mycelia and lanostane triterpenoids from basidiomes have been demonstrated to be directly responsible for antiviral-antibacterial and trypanocidal activity, respectively. A wider literature deals instead with crude extracts including an undetermined mixture of metabolites, whose efficacy in vitro is yet far from being standardised as extraction and treatment methodology are highly variable. Nevertheless, in vivo tests on bees provided promising results in order to develop sustainable solutions against the pathogens responsible for colony collapse disorders. Despite increasing attention has been paid to other medicinal aspects of this polypore, such as immune-tropic or antitumor, this review rationally reports and critically analyses the available knowledge by focusing on aspects of antimicrobial properties.