Can a Fungus Save Plants from Global Warming? | I Contain Multitudes
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- Опубликовано: 11 июл 2024
- It’s about time we put plants into the spotlight and focus on one of their most critical microbial partners: Fungi.
Just like animals and humans, plants have their own microbiomes to help them stay healthy and provide them with nutrients. Some of these microbes are fungi that live inside the plant, and as new research is beginning to show, this symbiotic fungi can actually help certain plants deal with tremendous environmental stress. One of these plant species is a type of “panic grass” that lives in extreme temperatures around the geysers and hot springs in Yellowstone…but despite its name, this grass doesn’t panic, it has its fungi to keep it calm. A microbe called Curvularia Protuberata protuberata helps it survive in these intensely extreme living conditions. In this episode, Ed Yong talks with microbiologist Rusty Rodriguez about how fungus might help alleviate the impacts of climate change on food crops.
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Wow, adding a fungus to an existing crop like melons, and they can handle heat much better? That is a huge breakthrough, for general understanding of symbiosis and agriculture. Why has this not millions of views?
This almost brought tears to my eyes, beautiful and lovely highlights on cooperation between species!
that's an awesome video , i was impressed from the start to the end .Never knew that it could exist a symbiotic relation between fungi and plants . Thank you so much for this !
Thank you Ed for this video!
Thank you Rusty n Regina (and everyone at symbiogenics) for doing super awesome and important stuff and thank you for letting me stay with you in 2018. Meeting fun and friendly scientists like you encouraged me to reenter the education system so one day I can work on projects like this :) I don't care that doing a BSc will likely take me 6+ years with my disabilities, getting involved will be very well worth the wait!
I am enjoying using these videos with my AP Biology class - thank you!!
great video 👍🏽👏🏽
Wow, such high quality content, thank you!!
I am reading your book right now...thanks for your passion
2 vợ chồng hạnh phúc .Đúng là an cư mới lập nghiệp .Đúng rồi làm youtube không dễ ăn như mọi ngườ nghĩ. Chúc 2 em sức khỏe và thành công trong sự nghiệp.
great video!
I have a garden that requires plenty of water since the weather can go up to 105 degrees in the summer. Is it possible for me to purchase Curvularia Protuberata for my non-edible plants???? If so, where can I purchase it?
Great video! Keep up the great work!
Khuda Burdi .
Really interesting. Keep up the amazing videos, guys!
Here's a question: What do you think about the use of different types of soap and do you think most people are paranoid about their hygiene without having much scientific knowledge?
Sometimes we forget that our skin is our largest organ, and does indeed have its own microbiome. Not only that, but regions of our skin have different communities of microbes, and it varies from person to person. You’re absolutely right, there is still much to learn - the skin microbiome is not as well-studied as say, the gut. We are just starting to see associations between dermatitis conditions and a dysbiosis of the skin microbiome, and there is a lot of research to be done. That being said, at "I Contain Multitudes" we opt to disturb our microbiomes as little as possible, and so our team hasn’t showered since the series began last year.
Great video! Can a similar symbiotic relationship be used to make plants pest and disease resistant as well?
This is a cool question, and it touches on another important point we didn't get to discuss in the video. Plant microbiomes are known to contribute to many processes, and disease resistance is certainly one of them. There have actually been successful microbiome transplants, where plants are provided with a ‘healthy’ microbiome mixture to aid its survival and growth that it was previously doing poorly in and succumbing to disease. You might say this is analogous to FMTs in humans!
Nice video. Did you do any research with the relationship between plants
and fungi ?
The word you were looking for at 1:50 is a mycologist!
There are fungi and plants all over the world, how is it possible that plants like crops and watermelon didn't create a symbiotic relationship with some fungi knowing all the evolutionary advantages that a relationship like that could produce ?
Hi Alex, this is a great question. Plants (and any organism, really) evolve based on the selection pressures in their environment - and in most cases, that's not extreme heat like what we see in Yellowstone. Fungi/plant symbioses that have evolved to survive extreme heat are more likely to occur in places where it's beneficial to both parties. So, although it may be nice for all plants to have already made relationships that allow them to survive the extremes, it was never necessary for survival before, and so the selection pressure was not high enough to incite the adaptation.
Wow! We all have fungi
Great video, very inspiring.
Here is my question: am not a guy of science and i know viruses are tricky, but from your prespective, is it possible to develop a successful HIV vaccine?
Wow, that's a big question! Anything is certainly possible and we're keeping our fingers crossed.