# All fungus dies, worldwide. What happens? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 6, 2015, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-fungus-dies-worldwide-what-happens/730189 "2015-09-06T17:19:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-fungus-dies-worldwide-what-happens/730189/21 "2015-09-07T04:11:46Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > Some plants wouldn’t be able to process nutrients. Okay, now things are getting scary. We’d have to find food sources to replace those that rely upon fungus It’s far worse than that. Pretty much every plant relies on fungi. Aside from the massive assistance they provide in nutrient cycle, the symbiotic fungi play a major role in protecting plants from bacterial and animal infections. It hasn’t been well studied, but with no fungi, we’ll see massive plant deaths due to infection. Entire forests will collapse and crops will be wiped out with no means of prevention. You’re not talking a trivial effect here. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-fungus-dies-worldwide-what-happens/730189/22 "2015-09-07T05:17:58Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Do you know of any food sources though, that fungi can exploit but bacteria can not? Offhand, no. You name it, some kind of bacteria can live on it (including non-organic sources). ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-fungus-dies-worldwide-what-happens/730189/23 "2015-09-07T05:52:22Z")
Goodbye, penicillin. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-fungus-dies-worldwide-what-happens/730189/24 "2015-09-07T06:31:56Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Goodbye, penicillin. I’d be surprised if there weren’t other GM organisms that can produce penicillin bacterium that produces penicillin. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-fungus-dies-worldwide-what-happens/730189/25 "2015-09-07T15:33:21Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > I’d be surprised if there weren’t other GM organisms that can produce penicillin bacterium that produces penicillin. Present biosynthesis appears to depend on culture of the _Penicillium_ fungus. However, it might be possible to do some genetic engineering to get a bacterium to produce it. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-fungus-dies-worldwide-what-happens/730189/26 "2015-09-07T19:54:10Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Present biosynthesis appears to depend on culture of the _Penicillium_ fungus. However, it might be possible to do some genetic engineering to get a bacterium to produce it. Could be interesting and potentially self-defeating, given that by definition, you’d be engineering a highly antibiotic resistant strain of bacteria ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-fungus-dies-worldwide-what-happens/730189/27 "2015-09-07T20:34:25Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Could be interesting and potentially self-defeating, given that by definition, you’d be engineering a highly antibiotic resistant strain of bacteria Good point. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-fungus-dies-worldwide-what-happens/730189/28 "2015-09-08T04:04:48Z")
If humans could evolve quickly enough (or be hybridized with cows), [they could digest cellulose themselves](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=767605). ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-fungus-dies-worldwide-what-happens/730189/29 "2015-09-08T04:22:39Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > If humans could evolve quickly enough (or be hybridized with cows), [they could digest cellulose themselves](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=767605). Sometimes it _seems_ like I have more than four stomachs. ---
**Author:** ![BrightNShiny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@BrightNShiny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrightNShiny)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-fungus-dies-worldwide-what-happens/730189/30 "2015-09-08T05:08:21Z")
And then we could get CJD and BSE at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-fungus-dies-worldwide-what-happens/730189/31 "2015-09-09T05:53:35Z")
With no yeasts, every woman on earth would get a nasty case of bacterial vaginosis. Normally, the yeast organisms and the bacterial organisms in the vagina keep each other in check. Sometimes the balance goes out of whack, however. Yeast infections are pretty common. That’s when the yeast gets the upper hand. Bacterial vaginosis is the opposite problem…one symptom is a fishy odor. Yuk. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-fungus-dies-worldwide-what-happens/730189/32 "2015-09-09T13:25:56Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Bacterial vaginosis is the opposite problem…one symptom is a fishy odor. I’ve yet to meet a honey-scented vadje 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-fungus-dies-worldwide-what-happens/730189/33 "2015-09-09T15:07:47Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > I’ve yet to meet a honey-scented vadje 😉 I guess you’ve never smelled a case of BV then. It’s pretty different than a normal non-honey-scented vadge. For what it’s worth, the Mayo Clinic and the CDC say that it’s caused by an imbalance between types of bacteria in the area, not an imbalance between yeast organisms and bacteria as I said above. If the yeast die off, however, the whole chemistry of the area will be thrown off, which will likely lead to BV or similar sorts of things. Long-term BV has been linked to other conditions such as decreased fertility, increased likelihood of pregnancy complications, increased susceptibility to other infections, etc. If the fungus die-off results in BV becoming much more common and harder to treat, the effects could really add up and make a huge impact. I’m not sure what role the yeasts themselves play in fertility and so forth, but I expect that they do have some positive function or we wouldn’t have them. Come to think of it, we have yeasts all over ourselves. Maybe someone better versed in such things could speculate on the effects of losing them. Vaginal yeast is kind of a gross topic, but it’s a good example of one of the less-obvious ways that a total fungus die-off would affect things. (FWIW, some sites class BV as an STD, and it can be triggered by unsafe sex, but it can occur for other reasons) > [@Lightnin](#): > > Seems like this’d make a good end-of-the-world novel, similar to Knight’s \*Fungus \*and Pelligrino’s _Dust_. Thanks for the references. Apocalyptic sci-fi is my thing, and somehow I’d never heard of these two novels. I agree that the scenario would make a very good novel. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2015, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-fungus-dies-worldwide-what-happens/730189/34 "2015-09-10T04:44:54Z")
I was worried that termites would no longer be able to digest ligno-cellulose and would starve while vainly chomping, chomping, chomping wood. But Microbe Wiki says that their guts contain species from “all three domains of life” (bacteria, eucharia, archaea), so they might go off kilter, but they wouldn’t be doomed to starvation. If fact some termites have no fungi in their guts at all, while a good many have protozoa. I know I’m relieved. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2015, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-fungus-dies-worldwide-what-happens/730189/35 "2015-09-10T06:07:56Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Could be interesting and potentially self-defeating, given that by definition, you’d be engineering a highly antibiotic resistant strain of bacteria You could just use non-pathogenic gram negative bacteria or cyanobacteria, which pose no increased risk. I’ve tried a Google search, but it’s hard to find any workable search terms. I’d be really surprised if nobody has spliced penniciln production genes into any other organism. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-fungus-dies-worldwide-what-happens/730189.md?page=1)