At first glance, nature seems easily divisible between plants and animals. Fungi, however, are a pretty big plot twist in this otherwise simple narrative. After all, fungiย appearย to be mostly plantlike and were classifiedย as such for centuries. Mushrooms grow out of the ground like plants, and even microscopic fungi such as yeast donโt have any recognizable animalian qualities. But once you start analyzing fungi genetics, theย story gets a lot more complicated. For one, fungi donโt have chloroplasts, the part of a plant cell necessary for photosynthesis. Fungi obtain nutrients by secreting a digestive enzyme into their surroundings and then absorbing nutrients, unlike the process of photosynthesis that plants use to obtain their food. And last (but not least), evidence suggests that fungi are more genetically related to animals than plants
The human body is a destination hot spot for all types of fungi. Popular haunts include the toenails and in between our toes. However, the most vibrant fungal community is on our heels, which are home to 80 types of fungi alone.
Using a process called computational phylogenetics, scientists analyzedย eukaryotesย โ any cell with a clearly defined nucleus โ and found that fungi and humans form a biological clade, meaning the two organisms share a common ancestor. This clade is called โopisthokonta,โ named for the posterior flagellum that propels both animal sperm and fungal spores.ย Some 1.5 billion years ago, animals and fungiย separated from plants, and fungi then separated from animals an estimated 10 million years later. Today, humansย share roughly 50%ย of our DNA with your average fungus.
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