[HN Gopher] Fungus-like organisms in deep time and deep rock
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       Fungus-like organisms in deep time and deep rock
        
       Author : jelliclesfarm
       Score  : 62 points
       Date   : 2021-05-08 14:04 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (natureecoevocommunity.nature.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (natureecoevocommunity.nature.com)
        
       | oxymoran wrote:
       | If fungi ancestors are 2.4 billion years old or older, that means
       | there had to have been some sort of organic matter at least that
       | far back as well. And if that's the case, biology should be
       | pretty widespread throughout the universe.
        
         | pfdietz wrote:
         | There was plenty of organic matter then, as that was around the
         | time of the Great Oxygenation Event, when cyanobacteria were
         | turning the Earth's atmosphere from reducing to oxidizing.
        
           | vanderZwan wrote:
           | It still feels a bit weird that we call it an "event" when it
           | took millions of years, and then another 800 million years
           | before anything came along that could _breathe_ oxygen,
           | leading to bacteria repeatedly nearly killing themselves off
           | during that entire period[0].
           | 
           | I wonder if this fungus-like discovery changes any of that
           | story.
           | 
           | [0] https://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/2009/02/ban
           | ds-...
        
       | AprilArcus wrote:
       | The "fungus like" organism in a mutualistic relationship with
       | bacteria is evocative of the structure and life style of the pre-
       | or proto-eukaryotic Lokiarchaeota recently cultured and imaged by
       | Hiroyuki Imachi et al.
       | 
       | "Isolation of an archaeon at the prokaryote-eukaryote interface".
       | Nature. 577 (7791): 519-525. Bibcode:2020Natur.577..519I. bioRxiv
       | 10.1101/726976. doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1916-6. PMC 7015854. PMID
       | 31942073.
        
       | bpodgursky wrote:
       | For reference, I assume the renewed interest here is driven by
       | the recent speculation about fungus-like organisms on Mars
       | https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1390423317245530124
        
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