The HBO series The Last of Usbased on the popular video game of the same name, mushrooms have become fashionable due to the epidemic described in the story, starring the Cordyceps. While this fungus can’t actually affect humans, there are others that are very deadly.
The deadliest of all is the Amanita phalloides, and so much so that it has been nicknamed the “mushroom of death”, since it is responsible for more than 90% of fatal poisonings. In fact, 30 grams of this fresh mushroom is deadly for any adult.
Can the mushroom from ‘The Last of Us’ turn us into zombies?
danger in europe
The mushroom lives mainly in Europe, especially in northern regions. However, a new study led by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has revealed that Amanita phalloides It hasn’t just jumped to North America, but it’s breeding fast.
Both sexual and asexual reproduction
The discovery is based on the genomes of 86 fungi collected in California since 1993 and in parts of Europe since 1978. Among the US samples, the fungi appear to have been able to reproduce both sexually and asexually for at least 17 years, and possibly as long as 30. years.
Until now it was known that many species of fungi reproduce through both sexual and asexual spores, depending on the circumstances, but until this recent discovery, no one knew that Amanita phalloides was among this class of fungi.
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A dangerous and inconspicuous fungus
Unlike other poisonous mushrooms, which often signal their toxicity with bright colors, the appearance of this mushroom can easily deceive both humans and animals, which could have caused many victims since it began to proliferate in North America. For example, in 2016, during a particularly severe local outbreak in San Francisco, 14 cases of human poisoning were attributed to the fungus.
The researchers will continue to control the dispersion of this species to avoid new cases of poisoning.