Plants May Recognize Their Siblings; How About Fungi?
I just caught wind of a new study that suggests that plants may be able to recognize their siblings. In brief, researchers found that a plant called sea rocket does not compete with other individuals descended from the same "mother." The researcher goes on to suggest that plants are capable of altruism, though I find that word a bit of a stretch. Altruism to me involves some level of cognition, and nothing in the study (or anywhere else) suggests that plants have cognitive skills.
One of the reasons I did some recent research was to investigate whether fungi that grow low to the ground in areas without much wind might utilize insect vectors to help disperse spores, thus reducing the need to compete with their own offspring. This study on plants brought that back to mind for me; I wonder if there might be similar circumstances in the fungi. In my own study, I found no evidence at all of the fungus I looked at (Ganoderma lucidum) exploiting its nearly-exclusive predator (Bolitotherus cornutus) to help disperse its spores. Maybe it doesn't need to because of some similar "altruistic" mechanism. I can't think of any way plants could recognize one another other than by some chemical signal — something akin to an animal pheromone. If plants and animals do it, then it seems very likely that fungi would do so as well, particular because of their unique mode of digestion. They already excrete a variety of digestive and antibiotic enzymes into their substrates, so why not add some chemical signal into the mix? From a "selfish gene" POV, it would make a good deal of sense for fungi to do it... even moreso than plants, I think.
I could speculate on this stuff all day, which is why I'm going into mycological research. Perhaps this would be one more avenue into which to delve someday. Must make a mental note...
