Nuclear Fungi: Redefining Life's Energy

A recent article published in PLoS one, an open access peer-reviewed scientific journal, was titled, "Ionizing Radiation Changes the Electronic Properties of Melanin and Enhances the Growth of Melanized Fungi"

I took a double take.

Ionizing radiation?! The same ionizing radiation given off by the glowing green rods Homer juggles everyday at work, or that makes Australia the global skin-cancer capital?

I turned to my office mate, and said, "Did you know there are mixotrophs [organisms that make a living by both creating their own food and eating other organisms] using radiation as an energy source?"

Her face went blank, and she replied, "Life is so cool."

I couldn't agree more. Why? Well, ionizing radiation can change the electronic configuration of an atom or molecule, and thus the way it interacts with its surroundings, by ionizing it. This type of radiation is especially nasty when it comes to DNA, and can cause point mutations among different genes causing them to become cancerous. Obviously, it comes as a great surprise then that the growth of melanized fungi is enhanced instead of inhibited by ionizing radiation.

Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine discovered that two species of melanized fungi, the garbage disposals of the microscopic world, grow significantly faster when exposed to 500 times the normal level of background radiation. Melanin, the same pigment found in our own skin cells, has until now no known roles in fungi that posess it. Further analysis of the melanin pigments showed they were capable of converting the radiation into chemical energy, which the author's hypothesized could be used to fuel growth.



What spurred the group's interest in radiation as a potential energy source?



I find comfort in knowing life will likely go on, in some form, if in the future our planet goes into nuclear meltdown: enormous mats of black fungi.