Spores ride a cooperative wind

摘要

This beautiful image of synchronized spore discharge from an ascomycete fungus comes from a book published in 1791. A cross-disciplinary group of researchers led by Marcus Roper and Agnese Seminara have now brought twenty-first-century approaches, including algorithms used to model the behaviour of droplets in clouds, to bear on study of this phenomenon (M. Roper et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA doi:10.1073pnas.l003577107; 2010). They find that simultaneous discharge in itself creates an air flow, a cooperatively generated wind, that allows the spores to travel much farther than if ejected alone - so enhancing their prospects of wafting farther afield.