Three Reasons Fungi Are Not Plants | ASM.org
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Fungi are more closely related to us than they are to plants. Yet, fungi have been grouped with plants historically, with an impact felt even today.
  • @WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13•1 month ago

    These sources aren’t great. A book from 1969 is one of them. I would’ve assumed DNA sequencing had already confirmed which one our ancestry and genome is more closely related to.

    If we branched away from one 700 million years ago, and the other 800 million years ago, then it’s more like “potato potatoe”.

    • Flying SquidEnglish
      29•1 month ago

      DNA sequencing is not necessary:

      There are major overlapping characteristics shared by fungi and animals that plants do not have, said John Walker, a professor at Appalachian State University who studies fungi.

      For example, both mushrooms and humans store carbohydrate energy as glycogen, while plants use starch to store energy. Both fungi and insects use the polysaccharide chitin to build cell walls, while plants use cellulose. And mushrooms, like humans, produce vitamin D when exposed to sunlight.

      https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2023/02/27/fact-check-mushrooms-share-more-dna-humans-than-plants/11339411002/

      • @MonkderVierte@lemmy.mlEnglish
        5•1 month ago

        Was vitamin D and polysaccharide already a thing when fungi came to be?

        There’s new research that micorhiza was the first to settle on land, preparing the ground for plants, some 500 million years ago.