US Edition'Zombie spider' fungi among Kew archive specimens
- Researchers at Kew's Fungarium, located beneath the west London gardens, are digitally preserving more than 1.1 million fungal specimens gathered over a span of 175 years.
- This digitisation project arises from a government-backed partnership with the Natural History Museum aiming to sequence about 7,000 fungi and make data publicly accessible online.
- Teams produce high-resolution images, transcribe specimen data, and upload georeferenced records to Kew’s portal, enabling global researchers to study changes in fungal species distribution over time.
- Kew draws attention to fungi like Hemileia vastatrix, the pathogen responsible for coffee rust that endangers coffee plantations worldwide amid climate challenges, and the so-called zombie spider fungus Gibellula attenboroughii. Dr Ester Gaya expressed enthusiasm about the untapped variety of chemical compounds preserved within these collections, emphasizing their potential for new discoveries through sequencing.
- The project’s genetic data could unlock novel compounds, aid species identification, and support conservation efforts addressing biodiversity and climate challenges worldwide.
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