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Morel Mushroom Evolution
    #8091901 -

i found this article as inspire me to post it here , the study of mushrooms is , some how amazing all the time , i will quote a few phrases about it .


-Morel mushrooms are highly desired and highly unusual. They evolved from a yeast so recently that they have not acquired a high degree of structural complexity.
Such extreme evolution, occurring so recently, creates a biology lesson unlike anything else. It shows how rapid change occurs. The physiology is somewhat scrambled and chaotic, and the morphology is unstable.


-The cap of the morel has many inadequacies which other mushrooms overcame. A typical mushroom cap protects spores from being washed away by rain. The morel cap does not. The gills of mushrooms have aerodynamic properties for exploiting wind. Morels cannot use wind nearly as effectively.
In other words, the use of ascospores by the morel was not a result of advantageous evolution but a disadvantageous carry-over from a yeast.

-Mushrooms are usually quite ancient in their evolution, which makes them hardy and easy to handle, as difficult as mushrooms can be to handle. Morels are in the infancy of their evolution, which makes them very fragile to handle.

-Morels may seem to be ubiquitous, but they are environmentally fragile, and they do not disseminate well, as explained in the biology summary.

The dissemination problem combined with rapid evolution resulted in morels varying in their appearance from area to area. Morel types are so variable that nomenclature is in a state of confusion.

The largest division is between brown and black morels. However, the browns blend into whites, with yellow or tan morels in-between. The blacks also do not create a sharp break from the browns, as various types of grays are in-between.

Morels are also highly variable in size and shape. Cylindrical to cone shapes are perhaps the most common. Totally round morels are not uncommon. Pencil shaped morels are more rare.

The appearance of morels is specific to an area; and therefore, their identification should include their location. However, they also vary within locations, as shown in the research section.

-Major steps in evolution are obscure, because they occur rapidly leaving evidence only of the before and after. The morel mushroom is in a transitional stage of evolution allowing the process to be visible. The result is stunning biology which shows unheard of effects including phenotypic variations, regional genotypic variations, pigmented mycelium and a reversion anomaly.

The morel began evolving from a yeast during the last ice age, about 100 thousand years ago, which is a very short time in evolution. It is still undergoing rapid and dramatic change as a result.

-The yeast-like characteristics of morels include:

use of ascospores.
residual autolysis.
lack of surface enzymes for breaking down solids for nutrients.
use of acid to attack bacteria and feed on them.
lack of resistance to dehydration when exposed to the atmosphere.

-The past ten ice ages have been cycling at 100 thousand year intervals. Before that, they were more varied.
Morel mushrooms re-evolve during each ice age. High humidity and rainfall is required to start morel evolution, because a filamentous yeast must resist dehydration on tree bark during the early stages.

When considering these points, morel evolution creates the impression that ice ages start with high humidity and rainfall. This conclusion is interesting, because other theorists have been assuming that ice ages involve dry and cold conditions, even at their beginning.

-The best way to spread morel spores is to put the old ones on tree branches. Only the old ones have mature spores. The young ones will dry before spores are formed.

-Some persons have success in cultivating morels in various types of compost. But more often, complete failure results.
The main reason for the failures is that each spore that germinates forms it's own identity and sets up a barrier to all other morel mycelium. As a result, when there is more than one germinating spore in an area, each competes with the others preventing any of them from getting sufficiently large to form a mushroom. This is what happens when spores are spread over an area.

The answer is to use points of inoculation with a lot of space between them. Then the growth towards the outside can expand outward. In cultivated areas, space the points of inoculation three feet apart (one meter) or more.

-My research shows a major transition which is presently occurring and easy to study, as a yeast adapted to soil growth and evolved into the morel mushroom. A reversion anomaly demonstrates that a step-by-step process occurred. The morphology changed more readily than the physiology, which is still yeast-like. The present state of the morel is an intermediate form progressing toward a cup fungus, which must be the convergence point for fleshy ascomycetes. In earlier times, morel-like forms completed the transformation into cup fungi.

The ancestor of the morel should be easy to locate. Presumably, it is a species of the yeast Schizosaccharomyces, perhaps japonicus. DNA testing should be able to verify that.

These results indicate that transitional evolution can occur in a manner compatible with Darwinian mechanisms. However, the scientific results say nothing about God's involvement.


Creationism Disproven



In recent years, creationists derived a quasi-scientific argument which says that major steps in evolution (transitions) cannot be demonstrated by science, which shows that God created each species separately.
They admit that microevolution does occur as variations within species, but they say macroevolution does not occur as formation of large groups.

Philip E. Johnson made that argument in a book titled "Darwin on Trial," 1991. He's a Berkeley law professor, not a scientist.

He supposedly summarized the scientific evidence showing that fossils are almost entirely absent for major transitions, and ancestors for large groups cannot generally be identified. He overlooked numerous incidences to the contrary. He also questioned whether mechanisms could be demonstrated to account for major transitions, as mutations and natural selection did not appear to be adequate.

My research shows a major transition which is presently occurring and easy to study, as a yeast adapted to soil growth and evolved into the morel mushroom. A reversion anomaly demonstrates that a step-by-step process occurred. The morphology changed more readily than the physiology, which is still yeast-like. The present state of the morel is an intermediate form progressing toward a cup fungus, which must be the convergence point for fleshy ascomycetes. In earlier times, morel-like forms completed the transformation into cup fungi.

The ancestor of the morel should be easy to locate. Presumably, it is a species of the yeast Schizosaccharomyces, perhaps japonicus. DNA testing should be able to verify that.

These results indicate that transitional evolution can occur in a manner compatible with Darwinian mechanisms. However, the scientific results say nothing about God's involvement.

It is not appropriate to extend science into the realm of religion, as atheists often do. The claim that Darwinian mechanisms preclude God's involvement is not valid. Mechanisms do not preclude other influences, even for lesser forces than God produces. For example, Darwinism does not preclude human selection and domestication.

My religious opinion is that God created life forms with the ability to be somewhat self-perpetuating, just as the laws of physics were designed to function independent of Divine influence. However, without God's influence, biology would be bland if not deteriorating, because the luck, randomness and coincidences would not be as favorable as complex life requires.

There is no evidence in my results of mechanistic inadequacies to Darwinian evolution. But above the mechanistic level, I think Divine planning is needed to integrate, harmonize, solve problems for and give purpose to biological evolution. For example, cotton and rubber are irreplaceable biological products. Humans would have been left without those necessities, if the randomness of the big bang were the only god.

Johnson indicated that scientists have not described a mechanism for rapid transitions. I think the evidence is indicating that the slow evolution which occurs between rapid transitions serves the purpose of handling point mutations by discarding bad ones and keeping good ones, which creates a lot of varient alleles, and then those genes are rearranaged during rapid transitions through recombination. Recombination includes a lot of chromosome splicing through cross-overs and insertions, which create multiple alleles on chromosomes. Morphological change, which is the easiest to produce, apparently involves rearrangements in genes affecting their sequences, linkages and timing for transcription.

Sex is the primary form of recombination. Sexual recombination is the mechanism for creating rapid transitions. The high investment in sex which nature makes has the purpose of creating rapid transitions.

A question which is not answered by my results is whether "mutations" (including recombinations) must be directed by Divine influence to increase biological complexity, or whether total randomness would suffice. I doubt that total randomness could result in evolution. Too many mutations would be required, and all structures and functions would have to evolve at separate times to prevent bad mutations for one function to be carried with good mutations for another.

The mechanisms of evolution are not inadequate, as creationists claim. Intelligent design is needed not to bypass inadequate mechanisms but to take care of purpose and "luck." There is too much luck in critical species existing or surviving catastrophes. A very obvious example is rubber trees. The transportation industry would not exist without rubber, and it is extremely improbable that a tree would produce rubber.

Here's an analogy. Say green Martians were looking through a telescope to determine if cars on earth could function on their own. They see all of the parts and say cars have all they need to operate without humans. But it would take too much luck for cars to stop at the stop signs and stay on the road without humans driving them. Evolution needs to be driven in the same way.

However, this is not a question of science. Science is only concerned with the mechanisms, just as an auto mechanic doesn't care who drives a car. The mechanisms of evolution look totally random to science, even if someone is using and directing evolution for a purpose.

A major problem in evolution is linkage. Numerous genes are linked on the same chromosomes, and numerous functions are linked in the same organism. Due to such linkages, only one function can be evolving at a time; and it only evolves one mutation at a time. Natural selection must act upon each mutation separately, or linkages will create conflicting requirements.

Consider the quantitative dynamics. If there are ten thousand bad mutations for each good (progressive) one, then more than one mutation on a chromosome will usually result in a bad mutation being carried with a good mutation. This problem is probably why species require such a low mutation rate. It must be low enough to allow only one mutation (typically) per chromosome per generation in order to unlink the bad mutations from the good ones. Organisms apparently handle the linkage problem by setting the mutation rate at a low level.



-the hole study is good information that open a new door to insvestigate ,
http://www.nov55.com/mr/index.html
http://www.nov55.com/mr/rev.html


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cuando una rafaga del pensamiento nos pasa  al lado se puede sentir  que valio  la pena  haber vivido, y cuando ese pensamiento se  convierte en sueño no paramos de soñar hasta realizarlo

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Re: Morel Mushroom Evolution [Re: cactu]
    #8093565 -

wow, awesome article. A for effort. =D
Quote:
Morel mushrooms re-evolve during each ice age. High humidity and rainfall is required to start morel evolution, because a filamentous yeast must resist dehydration on tree bark during the early stages.



thats fascinating. Where'd you find this cactu. ? *edit* Nevermind I can read! :P :celery:


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∞
I am incapable of conceiving infinity, and yet I do not accept finity.
- Simone de Beauvoir -

Edited by snoot (03/02/08 12:25 PM)

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Re: Morel Mushroom Evolution [Re: snoot]
    #8093571 -

thats gary novaks site. caveat emptor.


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:greys:

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Re: Morel Mushroom Evolution [Re: greys]
    #8093581 -

Thats about two bars above my knowledge. I need to do some readin!

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Re: Morel Mushroom Evolution [Re: cactu]
    #8093881 -

Well he lost me at the God theories,
but the parts about yeasts and
ascospores were very informative.
Thanks cactu

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Re: Morel Mushroom Evolution [Re: GGreatOne234]
    #9597637 -

sorry all related time to read more  a bit ,
investigate dry seasom apology`s
The biology of the morel mushroom has been extremely mysterious. When I began research on the morel in the late seventies, there was no explanation for the function of sclerotic, for its use of ascospores or for its perplexing shape.

As usual, I started research on the morel by trying to grow it. Having a background in microbiology, I used sterile procedures and focused on nutrition. Everything was a dead end and total mystery. Then one day, I noticed two containers (glass jars) on a shelf waiting to be discarded. In one was a thick growth of mycelium; in the other was little mycelium. The mediums looked identical, mostly peat moss. So I checked the media composition. The only difference is that one contained glucose and the other did not. Guess which one. The dead one contained glucose. The mycelium thrived on glucose, as nearly every living species does. So why was it dead. Basic physiology indicated that there could only be one explanation. The glucose produced acetic acid as a byproduct of metabolism, and filamentous fungi do not tolerate such byproducts. This was a contradiction. Why produce a toxic byproduct and kill itself doing so? The incongruous explanation is that the morel evolved so recently from a yeast that it still has the metabolism of yeasts.

So I began to study the morel as a yeast. I set up an experimental design for nutritional studies which would allow rapid screening of a large number of cultures. I used culture tubes with agar gel and varied the nutrients. This allowed the addition of pH color indicators which would show production of acid as a metabolic byproduct.

In gaining a large amount of information on the nutrition and metabolism of mycelial growth by Morchella, I was able to improve and optimize the nutrition. As the nutrition was optimized, I stumbled onto another phenomenon: the mycelium was differentiating in the culture tubes. (differentiating means changing structure.)

So I set up similar conditions in Petri plates, which allowed more space for the mycelium to expand. The result was that the mycelium would differentiate into an anomalous growth pattern. To some extent, the pattern would depend upon the genetics of the strain or species. But there was also variations within genetically homogenous strains. There was huge amounts of information in these results.
http://knol.google.com/k/gary-novak/morel-mushroom-evolution/32njogro4ne2a/2#
look what gary nobak had to say


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cuando una rafaga del pensamiento nos pasa  al lado se puede sentir  que valio  la pena  haber vivido, y cuando ese pensamiento se  convierte en sueño no paramos de soñar hasta realizarlo

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Re: Morel Mushroom Evolution [Re: GGreatOne234]
    #9598078 -

GGreatOne234 said:
Well he lost me at the God theories,
but the parts about yeasts and
ascospores were very informative.
Thanks cactu




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