{"id":16264,"date":"2024-03-01T12:47:25","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T12:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/01\/a-frog-in-india-has-a-mushroom-sprouting-out-of-it-researchers-have-never-seen-anything-like-it\/"},"modified":"2024-03-01T12:47:25","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T12:47:25","slug":"a-frog-in-india-has-a-mushroom-sprouting-out-of-it-researchers-have-never-seen-anything-like-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/01\/a-frog-in-india-has-a-mushroom-sprouting-out-of-it-researchers-have-never-seen-anything-like-it\/","title":{"rendered":"A frog in India has a mushroom sprouting out of it. Researchers have never seen anything like it"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When observing a hoard of golden-backed frogs at a roadside pond in Karnataka, India, a group of naturalists noticed something odd about one of the amphibians \u2014 the animal had a tiny mushroom sprouting out of its side. <\/p>\n

How the seemingly healthy frog came to grow its fungi companion \u2014 an occurrence that\u2019s never been documented before \u2014 has left scientists baffled, according to a note published in January in the journal\u00a0Reptiles and Amphibians. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first observed the frog with the mushroom, I was amazed and intrigued by the sight,\u201d said Lohit Y T, a rivers and wetlands specialist with World Wildlife Fund-India in Bengaluru, via email. Y T was a part of the group that discovered the frog. \u201cMy thought was to document it, as this phenomenon is something we have never heard of. We just wanted this to be a rare incident and not a dangerous phenomenon for the frog.\u201d <\/p>\n

The species \u2014 known as\u00a0Rao\u2019s intermediate golden-backed frog, or the scientific name Hylarana intermedia \u2014 is found in abundance in the southwestern Indian states of Karnataka and Kerala. The frogs are small, growing to be only up to 2.9\u00a0inches (7.4 centimeters) in length. <\/p>\n

As the naturalists watched the frog with the fungal growth, the animal moved from the center of the twig it sat upon to the very tip, turning around and changing positions, but the mushroom remained perfectly in place, Y T said. The group did not touch the frog. <\/p>\n

The authors discovered the amphibian in June 2023 and did not collect it, so neither the cause of the phenomenon nor the fate of the frog is known. <\/p>\n

But through pictures, mycologists later identified the mushroom growing out of the frog\u2019s flank as a\u00a0common bonnet,\u00a0part of the Mycena genus, a type of fungi that mostly grows on rotting wood from dead trees, the authors wrote in the published paper. The fungus is a\u00a0saprotrophic decomposer,\u00a0a mushroom that typically gets its nutrients from dead or decaying organic matter \u2014 but a\u00a02023 study\u00a0found the mushroom could evolve to thrive on living plants as well. <\/p>\n

The 2023 study further suggested that the Mycena fungus could develop to have a symbiotic relationship with living plants or trees, meaning that both the plant and the fungus growing on it would benefit from the arrangement \u2014 the fungi would both take nutrients from and transfer them to the plant host. In trees, Mycena could be helpful by pruning dead branches, the authors added. <\/p>\n

The prognosis of the frog with the mushroom hitchhiker is unknown, but there are a handful of theories as to the cause of its condition. <\/p>\n

Fate of the mushroom frog<\/h3>\n

Upon first seeing the report of the frog with a mushroom attached to its flank, Alyssa Wetterau Kaganer, a postdoctoral associate in the department of public and ecosystem health at the\u00a0Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine,\u00a0found the discovery fascinating. <\/p>\n

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\u201cFungi are dynamic organisms that adapt to changes in their environment, and with exposure to new potential hosts in different environments or climates they may grow in places we hadn\u2019t\u00a0previously expected,\u201d she said in an email. <\/p>\n

While it is difficult to predict the fate of the frog without further study of its condition, it is possible that \u201can otherwise healthy frog may be able to withstand mild colonization of its skin by this fungus without any adverse health effects,\u201d Kaganer said. Fungal infections in frogs are very common, however, and if the mushroom were to \u201cgrow extensively on the skin or burrow within the animal\u2019s body, the animal may develop signs of a fungal disease,\u201d she added.\u00a0Kaganer was not involved with the discovery. <\/p>\n

There are many types of fungi that can infect frogs, and it is possible there are fungus-frog interactions yet to be discovered. A frog with signs of fungal disease, such as \u201caltered behavior of the frog\u201d or \u201cskin damage including ulceration or tumor-like nodules,\u201d has an infection that can often result in death for at least some of the infected animals, Kaganer said. <\/p>\n

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Anything out of the ordinary, including a fungal growth like this, is of concern for frog species, said\u00a0Karthikeyan Vasudevan, chief scientist for the Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Telangana, India. Vasudevan was not involved with the discovery and was also surprised by the find. <\/p>\n

\u201cSick animals in the wild have very little chance of survival. To notice a sick animal is difficult, as they die or get eaten up quickly. Therefore, something like this is interesting and should be followed up with observations and screening of frogs,\u201d Vasudevan said in an email. <\/p>\n

Initially, Vasudevan had thought the mushroom was stuck on the frog\u2019s skin rather than a growth, but photos of the critter convinced him otherwise. \u201cIt is indeed the case of a live mushroom on a live frog,\u201d Vasudevan said. \u201cBut one of the possibilities is that there is a small piece of woody debris under the skin of the frog after it got lodged in the skin and it has sprouted a mushroom from it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Chytrid disease caused by fungus<\/h3>\n

India is currently facing an epidemic of a frog-killing disease known as chytridiomycosis, a fungal infection that affects more than 700 species of amphibians worldwide. The disease has been observed in low levels in all the frog hotspots across India, the authors of the new note wrote. <\/p>\n

Chytrid disease is an example of a common\u00a0amphibian and fungi interaction. But the authors do not know whether it is related to this discovery, Y T said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis specific type of mushroom\u00a0is not closely related to the species of fungus that cause chytridiomycosis, so I am not concerned that this mushroom is a direct sign of chytridiomycosis,\u201d\u00a0said Kaganer, who studies the disease.\u00a0\u201cHowever, it is possible that a frog with Mycena might have altered susceptibility to a chytrid infection.\u201d <\/p>\n

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The frog with the mushroom in its side could either have an increase in susceptibility to chytridiomycosis from being compromised by the Mycena, or it could be more immune \u201cbecause the Mycena has kicked the frog\u2019s immune system into high gear,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have any hope of pursuing the frog, as this is not a common phenomenon,\u201d Y T said. The authors\u00a0will visit the spot again during the next monsoon season, when the weather is warm and rainy and the frogs are most abundant, he added. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we manage to find it, it\u2019ll be great,\u201d Y T said. \u201cThe spot has been frequented by many enthusiasts and experts alike. It would be great if some researcher gets their hands on it and can further the investigation, but again, it\u2019s all highly unlikely to happen.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When observing a hoard of golden-backed frogs at a roadside pond in Karnataka, India, a group of naturalists noticed something odd about one of the amphibians \u2014 the animal had a tiny mushroom sprouting out of its side. How the seemingly healthy frog came to grow its fungi companion \u2014 an occurrence that\u2019s never been <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":16265,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16264","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}