Clear-cutting boreal forests does not reduce the total number of ectomycorrhizal fungal species, but permanently alters which species are present, with effects lasting at least a century.

Mushroom species such as Pleurotus ostreatus can degrade up to 95% of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in controlled conditions, pointing to a powerful enzymatic toolkit for cleaning polluted land.

Researchers at Kyoto University and Chosun University used CRISPR/Cas9 to disable gene mbp1 in Pleurotus ostreatus , producing mycelium mats that were approximately 30% stiffer and 50% stronger in tension than unedited controls. The edited fungal strains also produced harder mycelium-based composites under compression testing, and lost the ability to form fruiting bodies, which simplifies industrial production by keeping the fungus in its material-forming growth phase. This

Through their underground networks, fungi physically connect to plant roots, enabling the transfer of nutrients and chemical signals between trees: a system ecologists call the "Wood Wide Web."

Filamentous fungi produce enzymes, nanomaterials, and electrical signals that could underpin a new generation of biosensors capable of detecting pollutants, glucose, and pathogens. Mycelium networks generate structured electrical impulses that researchers are beginning to harness for unconventional computing and wearable sensing devices. A comprehensive review published in Biosensors maps five years of progress across molecular, material, and ecosystem scales, identifying bo