2.7M Year Old Fungus Found Living Under the Sea

    Scientists recently found an old fungus living on the seafloor in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The fungus lives in a mud that has been dated to 2.7 million years old. In the mud, and at the seafloor, there is a large community of microbes and other organisms that we have never seen before. Because the individual cells of such organisms are so small, searching the water for them is a large task. Researcher William Orsi, from Woods Hole, used a different technique to find the fungus. He looked for rRNA in the ocean water. Since rRNA is used in making proteins, the presence of rRNA would indicate that something is synthesizing proteins. After finding rRNA, his team targeted the mud and found the fungus.
    The presence of fungi correlates to the presence of carbon in organic molecules in the surrounding environment, and this suggests that one of the fungi's roles in this community is to recycle carbon.

Side Note: Orsi found a whole community, not just a fungus, but the fungus attracted the most attention, probably because fungi can be used to create organic compounds that people can use. Other organisms he found include various protists, dormant diatoms, green algae, and metazoans (any animal except for a protozoan or sponge).

Relevance: We learned about fungi's role as a chemical recycler in Term 3, and the fungi's role in this newly discovered community is carbon recycling. The fungus is particularly interesting to people because human uses for fungi can involve breaking down waste products and creating medicinal compounds, and this fungi may aid with production or breakdown of a specific compound that is either rare, or can't be broken down with current technology.



Source:
http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/07/17225644-27-million-year-old-fungus-found-deep-under-seafloor?lite