According to a report published in Frontiers, researchers have discovered a method to cultivate the zombie mushrooms that consume other insects in a laboratory without compromising their potency. The researchers thought mushrooms might aid in the creation of novel anticancer and antiviral medications.
Zombie mushrooms infect and kill insects.
Zombie mushrooms, the Cordyceps fungus, are effective in infecting and killing insects. The mushroom disperses throughout the insect’s body and creates a network of filaments that control the insect’s muscles. After it completely runs out of nutrients from the insect, the mushroom matures and produces spores from the insect’s flesh.
Despite their brutal production process, cordyceps mushrooms offer great medical significance, according to EurekAlert. It has cordycepin, an active substance that could soon be exploited to create compelling new antiviral drugs and cancer treatments.
Unlike other mushrooms, cordyceps mushrooms grow differently since they are not common in the wild. As a result, scientists have been having challenges growing mushrooms in the laboratory until now.
Interesting Engineering indicates that the mushrooms produce deficient levels of cordycepin due to the low protein content of the grain, even though there have been attempts to grow them on grains like brown rice.
Researchers make a breakthrough growing Zombie mushrooms
Researchers experimented with using edible insects as a substrate growth medium for cordyceps to improve cordycepin yield. Also, researchers looked at the ideal meal for the mushrooms to grow because different insects provide varying nutritional elements.
For two months, the group made zombie mushrooms on mealworms, grasshoppers, crickets, white-spotted flower chafer caterpillars, and Japanese rhinoceros beetles. After gathering the mushrooms, they investigated the results.
Because there were multiple insect food sources, the mushrooms developed extremely differently. On silkworm larvae and mealworms, the cordyceps thrived the fast, while grasshopper and chafer larvae fared the worst. High cordycepin levels sometimes resulted in maximal development, though. For example, the cordyceps cultivated on Japanese rhinoceros beetles didn’t grow as big, but they produced the most cordycepin—34 times compared to the larvae of the silkworm, who did the poorest.
