China announced new findings on the origin of oyster mushroom

Chinese scientists have recently discovered that oyster mushroom, a common edible mushroom, may have originated in the Himalayas from about 39 million years ago.

Oyster mushroom

Scientists have not known for a long time the evolutionary history and classification of fungi of the oyster mushroom genus . To understand the fungus, scientists from the Kunming Plant Research Institute, the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted genetic analysis of oyster mushrooms in Asia, Europe, the Northern region and South America, and Africa. They mapped the subspecies tree of 20 types of oyster-like fungi and identified seven of these fungi for the first time. 

According to the scientists, at the end of the Thuy Tan period, about 39 million years ago, the ancestor of the oyster mushroom may have lived in the Himalayas, but due to the accretion of the Qinghai - Tibet plateau and at the end of the Middle Ages, the fungus may have been introduced from East Asia via the North Atlantic continental bridge or the Bering continental bridge into North America at different times. .

The research helped scientists understand the origins and evolution of oyster mushrooms , providing important information to identify the new subspecies of the fungus and their reproduction.