ICONOLOGIES
Open Fung’s series on how we’re working to open fungal utility.
Fungi are generous providers, converting agricultural waste into valuable food, materials and medicines. Open Fung was created to open the tools, resources and information for working with fungi, and accelerate research through global collaboration and creativity.
The different animals and plants humans rely upon were domesticated over a timeline of millenia. In the past 150 years we have come to know some of the yeasts and other microbes we also depend upon, but very little is known about mushrooms and other fungi we are already growing at megaton scale. After being eaten, food is broken down into smaller pieces of matter while also producing energy. There are well drawn-out metabolic maps to describe how this process happens in domesticated organisms. These maps are reminiscent of a complex subway system from a futuristic alien civilization. We know very little about mushroom metabolisms. Open Fung is figuring out this map to guide us towards the future. Mushrooms that consume agricultural waste are found everywhere on the planet where plants and trees grow. They are globally distributed.
There is very little reliable information about these mushrooms, instructions for how to grow them, and what their metabolisms are doing. Mushroom blackbox.
Metagenomics is a form of collage, where information is gleaned from a larger population of different organisms that have already been described in part through their genetics.This collage of information acts as a structural guide when assembled together, and let’s us better understand the growth and metabolism of the mushrooms we are working with. Open Fung uses the tools and techniques of metagenomics to decipher what is going on with a mushroom as it eats its food and grows. The collage of pieces informs our understanding of the whole.
With good information and best practices, mushrooms from around the world can be compared in order to understand local differences.
Once networked, the utilities and applications of distributed mushrooms can be shared and adjusted to serve local conditions. Open Fung is working to create a super utility fungus that is well characterized, easy to work with and structured for greater engagement and sharing.