Deadliest Mushroom Is Spreading Worldwide

Author: Sheila M. Eldred

Date of Publication: February 10, 2014

Link: http://news.discovery.com/earth/plants/deadliest-mushroom-in-the-world-is-spreading-140210.htm

Summary:

       While Amanita phalloides, or the death cap, may try to look as innocent and delicious as the edible mushrooms it grows around, its contains a dark secret.  The mushrooms contain enough toxicity have the ability to inflict quite the amount of damage to the human body which lead to the death of the consumer.  Due to its fast reproduction through the use of spores, the death cap has now become a huge invasive species on every continent except Antarctica.   In the United States, it has spread across the East and the West Coasts and appears to have adapted to living on certain plants such as oak trees and native pines.  The growth of the fungus currently seems to be converging inward and travelling south towards Mexico.

       Luckily, an antidote has seemed to be discovered by a man named S. Todd Mitchell of Dominican Hospital of Santa Cruz and his colleagues.  Created from milk thistle, the drug has saved over 60 patients who all had proper kidney functions and took the drug within 96 hours of digesting the mushroom.  After the drug is injected, it blocks the receptors that signal for the toxins to go into the liver.  The toxins then are forced to stay in the bloodstream which allows the kidneys to expel the toxins faster.  While there are virtually no side effects from the drug, Mitchell still needs more patients before he can publish the research.

Connection:

                How this connects to our biology class is the fact that Amanita phalloides is a fungus and that it uses many of the ideas or processes that we talked about in class.  First off, we discussed how fungi are never autotrophs and are usually the decomposers.  The fact that this fungus has been found on trees might lead to the conclusion that it is a decomposer or is in a parasitic relationship with the different trees.  The next idea that was said during class was about how the fungi make tons of spores and reproduce fast.  Amanita phalloides spreads quickly due to the fact that it makes so many spores which all have almost the same potentials.  Finally, a third idea that was talked about during class was the idea that antibiotics have no effect against these fungi and so other cures or treatments need to be found.  In this case, Mitchell created this drug without side effects so far that was able to treat the fungi and save patients.