How fungi recognize (and infect) plants | Mennat El Ghalid

Each year, the world loses enough food to feed half a billion people to fungi, the most destructive pathogens of plants. Mycologist and TED Fellow Mennat El Ghalid explains how a breakthrough in our understanding of the molecular signals fungi use to attack plants could disrupt this interaction — and save our crops.

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42 Comments on How fungi recognize (and infect) plants | Mennat El Ghalid

    • I grow a lot of Milkweed, for Monarchs. As soon as I see a plant with fungus or any of the MANY diseases capable of destroying the plant, I make a (weak) solution of water with a drop of Dawn, spray the plant, and then wash it off vigorously after a few minutes. I realize many fungi come up from the roots: when I suspect THIS, I repot the plant, spraying the roots with the Dawn solution, and repot it in fresh (untainted) soil. Works FOR ME!

  1. Yo so Terrance Mckenna credits human evolution to mushrooms. What if mushrooms really rule the world and are using us to grow plants so they can consume them?!!

  2. Similar to how young men from third world countries recognise the benefit-money-rich Western European countries and infect them by spreading and colonising them.

    • techniquerules How are they exploiting the population? By giving them jobs and an opportunity to become rich and successful?

      You’re right, that’s so oppressive…

    • internet debates always endup in pointless argument so I’ll just do an info dump to save time, check these out when you feel like it:

      Finance as Warfare Micheal Hudson (book)
      Noam Chomsky How the world works (book)
      Lastly do some research on the IMF, the conditions for their loans to a developing country benefit outside interests over the enrichment of the local population

    • techniquerules – as for ignorance I studied politics and economic history at college so I do have some ideas of how this world is being run.

    • techniquerules – I learned many different theories and decided for myself which ones seemed most like reality, rather than the delusional nonsense in the minds of SJWs.

  3. I think the problem is monoculture crop production. We need to transform all public landscapes into a self-sustainable food forest. Where the homeless and general public could have easy access to free food.

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