Discover the whole fungus covered with gold

Where the Fusarium oxysporum mushroom crawls, the gold will cover the fibers there. This finding is assessed to bring new benefits to Australia's gold mining industry.

The name of the fungus Fusarium oxysporum is not new, but it is only really noticeable in the scientific world when it recently discovered its special ability: collecting gold in the soil .

Fusarium oxysporum in the family Nectriaceae, first discovered in 1824, is a fungus that occurs in many parts of the world - (Photo: CSIRO).

Researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) have just released the discovery in the May 23 issue of Nature. They used an electron microscope to magnify the image of Fusarium oxysporum collected in western Australia and found that the "newborn" mycelium was pink, but the larger mushroom mycelium was covered with gold.

One hypothesis was that the mushroom "sought" and dissolved the gold scales with an oxidation reaction, then created another chemical to solidify the gold, surrounding the mushroom mycelium.

However, scientists have yet to explain how Fusarium oxysporum can identify gold and extend the hyphae there.

Tsing Bohu, CSIRO's researcher said that this finding "is unusual and surprising". Because mushrooms are known to be one of the oldest living organisms. Many fungal species have been reported to corrode, degrade or recycle organic matter. They also have certain interactions with metals such as aluminum, iron, manganese and calcium, but no records regarding gold.

This is the first evidence that a fungus can play a role in moving gold across the Earth's surface and providing a basis for detecting gold reserves on the ground.

Researchers evaluating this finding will bring new benefits to Australia's gold mining industry. The country is currently taking soil samples from termite mounds to find traces of underground gold mines.

Finding gold in the ground through fungi, plants or insect nests is less costly and less harmful to the environment than drilling.