Melanin, Radiation, and Energy Transduction in Fungi
ABSTRACT Melanin pigments are found in many diverse fungal species, where they serve a variety of functions that promote fitness and cell survival. Melanotic fungi inhabit some of the most extreme habitats on earth such as the damaged nuclear reactor at Chernobyl and the highlands of Antarctica, bot...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/microbiolspec.funk-0037-2016 https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/microbiolspec.FUNK-0037-2016 |
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crasmicro:10.1128/microbiolspec.funk-0037-2016 2024-06-23T07:47:37+00:00 Melanin, Radiation, and Energy Transduction in Fungi Casadevall, Arturo Cordero, Radames J. B. Bryan, Ruth Nosanchuk, Joshua Dadachova, Ekaterina Heitman, Joseph Gow, Neil A. R. 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/microbiolspec.funk-0037-2016 https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/microbiolspec.FUNK-0037-2016 en eng American Society for Microbiology https://journals.asm.org/non-commercial-tdm-license Microbiology Spectrum volume 5, issue 2 ISSN 2165-0497 journal-article 2017 crasmicro https://doi.org/10.1128/microbiolspec.funk-0037-2016 2024-05-27T12:59:35Z ABSTRACT Melanin pigments are found in many diverse fungal species, where they serve a variety of functions that promote fitness and cell survival. Melanotic fungi inhabit some of the most extreme habitats on earth such as the damaged nuclear reactor at Chernobyl and the highlands of Antarctica, both of which are high-radiation environments. Melanotic fungi migrate toward radioactive sources, which appear to enhance their growth. This phenomenon, combined with the known capacities of melanin to absorb a broad spectrum of electromagnetic radiation and transduce this radiation into other forms of energy, raises the possibility that melanin also functions in harvesting such energy for biological usage. The ability of melanotic fungi to harness electromagnetic radiation for physiological processes has enormous implications for biological energy flows in the biosphere and for exobiology, since it provides new mechanisms for survival in extraterrestrial conditions. Whereas some features of the way melanin-related energy transduction works can be discerned by linking various observations and circumstantial data, the mechanistic details remain to be discovered. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica ASM Journals (American Society for Microbiology) Microbiology Spectrum 5 2 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
ASM Journals (American Society for Microbiology) |
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crasmicro |
language |
English |
description |
ABSTRACT Melanin pigments are found in many diverse fungal species, where they serve a variety of functions that promote fitness and cell survival. Melanotic fungi inhabit some of the most extreme habitats on earth such as the damaged nuclear reactor at Chernobyl and the highlands of Antarctica, both of which are high-radiation environments. Melanotic fungi migrate toward radioactive sources, which appear to enhance their growth. This phenomenon, combined with the known capacities of melanin to absorb a broad spectrum of electromagnetic radiation and transduce this radiation into other forms of energy, raises the possibility that melanin also functions in harvesting such energy for biological usage. The ability of melanotic fungi to harness electromagnetic radiation for physiological processes has enormous implications for biological energy flows in the biosphere and for exobiology, since it provides new mechanisms for survival in extraterrestrial conditions. Whereas some features of the way melanin-related energy transduction works can be discerned by linking various observations and circumstantial data, the mechanistic details remain to be discovered. |
author2 |
Heitman, Joseph Gow, Neil A. R. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Casadevall, Arturo Cordero, Radames J. B. Bryan, Ruth Nosanchuk, Joshua Dadachova, Ekaterina |
spellingShingle |
Casadevall, Arturo Cordero, Radames J. B. Bryan, Ruth Nosanchuk, Joshua Dadachova, Ekaterina Melanin, Radiation, and Energy Transduction in Fungi |
author_facet |
Casadevall, Arturo Cordero, Radames J. B. Bryan, Ruth Nosanchuk, Joshua Dadachova, Ekaterina |
author_sort |
Casadevall, Arturo |
title |
Melanin, Radiation, and Energy Transduction in Fungi |
title_short |
Melanin, Radiation, and Energy Transduction in Fungi |
title_full |
Melanin, Radiation, and Energy Transduction in Fungi |
title_fullStr |
Melanin, Radiation, and Energy Transduction in Fungi |
title_full_unstemmed |
Melanin, Radiation, and Energy Transduction in Fungi |
title_sort |
melanin, radiation, and energy transduction in fungi |
publisher |
American Society for Microbiology |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/microbiolspec.funk-0037-2016 https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/microbiolspec.FUNK-0037-2016 |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica |
op_source |
Microbiology Spectrum volume 5, issue 2 ISSN 2165-0497 |
op_rights |
https://journals.asm.org/non-commercial-tdm-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1128/microbiolspec.funk-0037-2016 |
container_title |
Microbiology Spectrum |
container_volume |
5 |
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2 |
_version_ |
1802651747702800384 |