Utah State University Wins $900,000 Keck Grant to Study Electrical Activity in Fungal Networks
Utah State University researchers led by Erika Espinosa-Ortiz have received a $900,000 grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation to test whether fungal networks use electrical activity to sense and respond to their environment.
The team plans to build a non-invasive imaging tool based on genetically encoded fluorescent proteins that change brightness with the electrical potential of the fungal cell membrane, then use machine learning to analyse the resulting datasets.
If the signals prove meaningful, the researchers say the platform could support new fungal applications in environmental monitoring, agriculture and biotechnology, and could be used to study electrical activity in other non-neuronal organisms.
Why Electrical Activity in Fungal Networks Is Poorly Understood
Fungi form extensive living networks that influence nutrient cycling, ecosystem resilience and environmental health. Despite this, USU describes them as one of the least understood groups of organisms on Earth.
It is already known that fungi exhibit electrical activity. What remains unclear, according to Espinosa-Ortiz, is whether that activity carries any biological meaning or is merely incidental. She identifies the main obstacle as a lack of suitable tools for studying the phenomenon properly.
Existing approaches have their limitations. Some groups have used needle-like electrodes to measure electrical activity in fungi, but the invasive nature of the method can make measurements less accurate. Others have used fluorescent dyes to visualise electrical events, although these methods also have drawbacks.
A Non-Invasive Imaging Approach
The team proposes to develop a non-invasive alternative built on genetically encoded fluorescent proteins. These proteins are engineered into the fungus and change in brightness in response to variations in the electrical potential across the fungal cell membrane. In effect, the organism reports its own electrical state, so researchers can see it without puncturing the tissue.
The researchers will then record how the activity responds when a fungal network is exposed to environmental and biological disturbances. The experiments will generate large imaging datasets showing electrical activity over time. Machine learning tools will be used to identify patterns and to determine whether particular disturbances are associated with distinct electrical responses.
The stated ambition is to observe how signals emerge, spread and change across an entire network. Espinosa-Ortiz says this kind of network-level information has not so far been accessible in fungi.
A Multidisciplinary Team
The project draws on several specialisms, which reflects how many disciplines the problem touches:
Jixun Zhan, from USU's biological and chemical engineering department, will support development of the fungal strains used in the study.
Lukas Buecherl, an assistant professor of biological engineering at USU, will contribute genetic engineering approaches for implementing the fluorescent proteins.
Venkatraman Siddharthan, a neuroscientist and microscopic imaging expert in USU's Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences Department, will lead the advanced live-cell imaging and continuous monitoring of electrical activity.
Yanqing Su, of the University of Oklahoma, will develop machine learning tools for analysing the imaging datasets.
Espinosa-Ortiz began studying fungi during her doctoral programme and directs USU's Fungal Biotechnology and Engineering Lab. The lab explores fungal systems for bioremediation and the development of alternative bioengineered materials. The Keck Foundation, established in Los Angeles in 1954 by William Myron Keck, founder of The Superior Oil Company, supports science, engineering and medical research.
Potential Applications and Open Questions
USU says that observing these signals could lead to new uses of fungal systems in environmental monitoring, agriculture and biotechnology. Readers following the wider role of mycelial networks in agricultural biotechnology may see why a reliable readout of network behaviour would be of interest. The imaging platform might also offer a way to study electrical activity in other non-neuronal organisms. The project's reliance on fungal genetic engineering to install the fluorescent reporters is another reminder of how much modern fungal research depends on that toolkit.
The announcement describes a research programme that is at its start, and it reports no results. The central premise, that fungal electrical activity has biological meaning, is the hypothesis under test rather than an established finding. The applications USU lists are possibilities that depend on the outcome. The announcement also does not state the grant's duration, the fungal species to be studied or the specific disturbances to be applied. Whether the genetically encoded proteins perform reliably in fungal networks is itself part of what the project must demonstrate.
For founders and investors, the near-term significance is methodological. A validated, non-invasive way to watch signals move through a living network would be a new research instrument, and whether fungal systems can be used as sensors would only become a practical question if the signals turn out to be meaningful.
