When people think of mushrooms, it is usually in the direction of cozy mushroom tours with chanterelles and boletus. Not murderous fungal spores taking over the world and turning people into mindless monsters. Incidentally, that is exactly what happens in the HBO series “The Last of Us”. The fungus called “cordyceps” is a parasitic fungus that takes up residence in insects and takes over control of their bodies. In the series, this fungus evolves to be able to do the same to humans. But an apocalyptic event of this event is probably impossible. Or? This is what it looks like when the fungus takes over the body of an ant. Photo: Erich G. Vallery / USDA Forest Service The zombie mushroom can be found in Norway The cordyceps mushroom is actually a real species of mushroom, which is often referred to as a “zombie mushroom”. In Norwegian, it has been given the wonderful name: Snylteklubbe. – It is because they are slightly club-shaped when it grows out of the insect they parasitize on, says insect researcher at Nord University, Gunnar Kvifte. – There are many cool concepts in nature that you could make series about, says Gunnar Kvifte, who himself has not seen the series “The Last of Us”. Photo: Privat Before the parasite club becomes the mushroom-shaped fungus, it lives as a parasite inside an insect. – If the fungi appear in the right insect, it affects the behavior of the insect. The parasite causes the insect to do things it would not otherwise do. It is quite common. The fungus is a network of many threads that go into different parts of the insect’s body. – Similar effects are also known in such advanced animals as fish and small rodents. – I know that zombie mushrooms exist in Norway. I see them maybe every two or three years. BUTTERFLY PUPA: Here, a parasitic club fungus grows out of a butterfly pupa. Photo: Håkon Holien The TV series, which is based on a game, has been very successful all over the world. The first episode was one of the most watched ever on HBO, reports Variety. – A masterfully told story, which ripped through my emotions and ripped them to shreds, wrote reviewer Marte Hedenstad in Filmpolitiet. Makes people take chances – Can the fungus turn people into zombie-like creatures? – Theoretically, it should be possible, says the researcher. According to Kvifte, humans have previously been diagnosed with a similar parasite called toxoplasma gondii, which is found in cats. It is often cat owners who incur this. – A study suggests that people with toxoplasma are more likely to end up in traffic accidents. They take bigger chances. – But we know terribly little about this. It is assumed that it is not so dangerous for humans, as we do not have the same evolution as small rodents – which are most exposed to this parasite, he emphasizes. The TV series is based on a game with the same plot. Here we see one of the actors dressed as a fungus-infected person. Photo: HBO Max He also believes that we would discover it quite quickly if a parasite were to develop in that direction in humans: – It takes quite a few generations of evolution before such a connection becomes effective. – People follow diseases and parasites after all. We have a good emergency response system that ants and small rodents do not have. They have no public health institute. If infections were discovered that caused behavioral challenges, they would probably have been taken care of before it became as big a challenge as we see in “The Last of Us”. Must be more on the ball In the TV series, global warming is partly to blame for the spread of fungi. It is well rooted in reality, Kvifte believes. – A warmer climate causes microorganisms to develop and reproduce faster. This means that the fungus gets a faster evolution. That’s why we have to be more on the ball, he says. If the parasite club becomes more widespread, it could affect our entire ecosystem, he says. – It can affect the insect population. Anything that affects insect populations will also affect the ecosystem – which ultimately affects humans. The fungus affects the brains of the insects so that they begin to behave in a way that benefits the fungus, for example the larva burrows before pupation. Photo: Klaus Høiland / SNL On the list of the world’s most important medicines So we are not going to become zombies anytime soon. However, the pickle has some properties that can help us humans. – In China, they use it in traditional medicine. You can also buy it as a dietary supplement in some alternative stores. In one of the mushrooms in the species, a substance called cyclosporin has been found. – It is an immunosuppressive substance that is on the WHO’s list of 100 most important medicines in the world. Some variants of the parasite club therefore produce chemicals that can have very favorable benefits. – Modern transplantation would not be possible without this fungus. There are quite a few species of the parasite club. Each mushroom is often a specialist in an insect species and we have many insect species.
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The fungus in “The Last of Us” is real, but can it turn people into zombies? – news Nordland
