{"id":4726,"date":"2015-07-16T06:14:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-16T06:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blog.sdps-bbs.com\/?p=4726"},"modified":"2025-08-04T15:37:33","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T19:37:33","slug":"mushroom-tree-of-life-unlocked-using-purdue-fungi-collections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/mushroom-tree-of-life-unlocked-using-purdue-fungi-collections\/","title":{"rendered":"Mushroom ‘Tree of Life’ Unlocked Using Purdue Fungi Collections"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Aime

Photo: Tom Campbell<\/p><\/div>\n

Mushrooms are strange forms of life. Some can kill you within hours, some are psychedelic hallucinogens and others are just good on a pizza. There are estimated to be six to 20\u00a0times more species of fungi than\u00a0plants, and a lot of them are still shrouded in mystery. Since the time of Carl Linnaeus<\/a> in the 1700s, we have been searching for answers in the fungi kingdom, and recently, we just found a big one in the shape of an evolutionary mapping dubbed the “tree of life.”<\/p>\n

Using collections of preserved fungal specimens called fungaria from Purdue’s Arthur Fungarium<\/a>\u00a0and Kew’s\u00a0Fungarium<\/a> in the Royal Botanic Gardens<\/a>, two of the biggest and most important fungi collections in the world,\u00a0mycologists like Catherine Aime<\/a>\u00a0were able to study well over 100\u00a0years’ worth of preserved specimens\u00a0and apply modern DNA technology to piece together genomes and discover new connections linking mushroom species. This “tree of life” is the clearest and most comprehensive mapping to date of the evolutionary history of fungi.<\/p>\n

Aime says that this study reinforces the importance of fungaria as we advance in the genomic age. These extensive collections are priceless, containing specimens as far back as some from Darwin himself, and documenting hundreds of thousands of species throughout the years. Some of these species might not exist in the future, and it is essential that we document and preserve them as we learn new ways to use them in the future.<\/p>\n

The research\u00a0paper documenting this ‘tree of life’ was published in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society\u200b<\/a> and is available for journal subscribers and readers at Purdue.<\/p>\n

Read the\u00a0full article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Resources<\/b>
\nDNA Samples From Purdue, Kew Fungi Collections Provide Key to Mushroom ‘Tree of Life’<\/a>, Purdue Extension
\nArthur Fungarium<\/a>, Purdue Herbaria
\nKew’s Fungarium<\/a>, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens
\nAime Lab<\/a>, Purdue University Department of Botany and Plant Pathology
\nFungi – In a Kingdom All By Themselves<\/a>, Indiana Department of Natural Resources<\/p>\n

Natalie van Hoose<\/a>, Research News Writer
\nPurdue Extension\u200b<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mushrooms are strange forms of life. Some can kill you within hours, some are psychedelic hallucinogens and others are just good on a pizza. There are estimated to be six to 20\u00a0times more species of fungi than\u00a0plants, and a lot of them are still shrouded in mystery. Since the time of Carl Linnaeus in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,49,53],"tags":[60,67,71],"class_list":["post-4726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forestry","category-plants","category-urbanforestry","tag-forestry","tag-plants","tag-urban-forestry","audience-for-enthusiasts","audience-for-homeowners","audience-for-landowners","audience-for-professionals"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-19 13:53:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4726"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33839,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4726\/revisions\/33839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}