Re:Bacteria store memories and pass them on for generations
by lagniappe on Wednesday November 22, 2023 @10:00AM
(#38380122)
I've long had this crackpot theory that mycorrhizal networks are to plants what skin and digestive microbiome are to humans
Re:Bacteria store memories and pass them on for generations
by culi on Wednesday November 22, 2023 @10:26AM
(#38380501)
Not that crackpot imo. The essential difference between animals and fungi is that at some point one group decided to digest things internally with a stomach (animals) and another group decided to digest things externally with enzymes (fungi). This external relationship to nutrients might make fungi as an organism simply more modular and able to make more interesting symbiotic relationships. Acting not just as partners but organs of a larger body
https://www.cell.com/trends/plant-science/fulltext/S1360-138...
Given this and the recent discovery that plants can pass down RNA through mycorrhizal networks and can recognize their own offspring, it seems plausible that memories can also be passed through mycorrhizal networks.
What stories does the soil hold?