Mushrooms have more than 23,000 sexes to reproduce

Bird's foot fungus possesses many different sexes, helping to increase the rate of finding reproductive objects.

The bird's-foot fungus , the scientific name is Schizophyllum commune , lives mainly in places like India, Thailand, Malaysia, Madagascar, Nigeria, with over 23,000 different sexes, Newsweek reported yesterday. This number may sound very special to humans, but actually not too strange in mushrooms.

Basically, mushrooms can trade any genetic material, so the concept of gender is unnecessary, Kathie Hodge, a professor at Cornell University explained. They create a link that allows the nucleus to move from one cell to another.

Schizophyllum commune grows on wood.(Photo: Popular Science).

Consider mating patterns instead of gender, Hodge said. An animal may have two types of mating, and the bird's foot has thousands of patterns. The most important condition is to pair with a heterosexual mushroom if you want to breed. At that time, one of the two fungi can "become pregnant" , creating gametes or reproductive cells.

Although the possession of too many genders sounds complicated, in fact, this helps the mushroom increase the rate of finding a suitable partner. For example, humans can only give birth when paired with about half of the rest, but the fungus is almost paired with any object because their gender is different.

However, it's not always easy to pair in mushrooms, which can be quite difficult, Hodge commented. Each sex gene can have many variations, meaning that the fungus must find a partner with every gene that is different, according to the BBC.

Owning thousands of genders also offers another advantage: many combinations of genes will help protect the fungus from threats such as drought or parasites.

A 2013 study of fungal sex indicates that an enzyme that causes serious brain infection, Cryptococcus neoformans , can mate with its own clones, according to Live Science.

Mushrooms are not the only organism with complex sex. In 2011, it was discovered that a Cardinal bird had both the bright red fur of the male, and the soft, furry gray of the female. Biologists then determined that the bird carried both male and female sexes, called gynandromorphism or bisexual individuals, according to Live Science. This is also the case with insects, spiders and other birds.