Dr Jennifer McGaley explains how her 56-hour marathon opened up the mysterious life of fungi.
Imagine a lifeform with mind-bending characteristics. It can clone itself, fuse with others of its kind, and knit together whole environments with its fractal tendrils. Its offspring lie dormant in the soil of every continent and are carried ceaselessly on the wind. But it can only thrive inside another species, where the lifeform’s branching organs pulsate for a few hours before fading away.
This lifeform is alien, but not so distant: meet the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi beneath your feet.
Now, Dr Jennifer McGaley (St John’s 2015), Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Cereal Symbiosis Lab, has filmed these fungi in action for the first time. After decades of seeing in static, researchers can witness fungi in full flow.
It took McGaley 56 hours to produce a continuous time-lapse. She divided the marathon with her student Ben Schneider, taking shifts at the microscope for 45 minutes at a time, then sneaking in a quick nap before the next interval.
