Science / Medicine : Fungus: Good, Bad and Ugly

A task force with a $25,000 budget will study Canada’s culture collection--that’s culture as in fungus, not arts.

“If it wasn’t for fungus, the whole world would be covered with wood,” said Gordon Neish, task force secretary and an Agriculture Department research coordinator. “Fungi play a very important role in recycling nutrients in the forest,” he said. “They chew up leaves, wood, bark and so on and recycle these and help build up the soil.”

“Basically when we look at fungi, we look at them as being good guys and bad guys,” Neish said. The “bad guys” cause plant diseases ranging from wheat rust to potato blight. They cause human diseases from ringworm, athlete’s foot to blastomycosis: a range of infections caused by yeast-like fungi known as blastomyces. The “good guys” include certain mushrooms, yeasts used to make beer, bread and wine. They are sources for antibiotics like penicillin and other pharmaceuticals such as birth control pills.