How can mushrooms live for hundreds of years without developing cancer?

About the episode

With each cell division, the risk of cancer increases. A long-lived species like the elephant should therefore develop cancer more often than a short-lived species like the mouse. But in 1975 it had already been shown that this was not the case and that there was little variation in cancer risk between animal species.

There are variations between mushroom species. Researchers from Wageningen University and Research have an idea of ​​how this can be done. Long-lived, slow-growing fungi, such as witch-ring-forming species that can live for hundreds of years, appear to have no chance of mutations with a special mode of cell division, which greatly reduces the risk of cancer.

The cells of the underground network of these fungi have two nuclei. When a terminal cell divides into hyphae, one of the two nuclei makes a “detour” to the daughter cell. To do this, it first migrates to a temporary side cell, or side branch, which then merges with the daughter cell. This creates a sort of loop, or loop.

Previous research showed that the mutants lost the ability to fuse like hyphae. According to the researchers, the merger of such a loop must therefore be a kind of test moment.

If the cell cannot fuse, it means a dead end for the cell and therefore the end of its nucleus. Because their previous research revealed that loss of fusion is the main pathway to “nucleus cancers”, they now hypothesize that the loop acts as a screening tool for core quality. A test that nuclei with mutations in fusion genes fail.

Read more about research here: How can mushrooms live for hundreds of years without developing cancer?