How do you measure the age of a fungus? Scientists say it’s surprisingly difficult
Cell Press
image:
Polypore growing on a snowy tree in winter.
view moreCredit: Kristin Aleklett
Some of Earth’s oldest living organisms may be right beneath our feet: not ancient trees or coral reefs but fungi. Yet despite their ubiquity and importance, scientists still don’t know how long most fungi can live—or even how to define their age.
In an opinion paper publishing in the Cell Press journal Trends in Microbiology on August 13, researchers examine why fungal longevity remains so difficult to study. To investigate the long-overlooked biological mystery, the team recommends leveraging new technologies such as “fungi-on-a-chip” and conducting long-term lab experiments with genetic tracking.
“We don’t really know if 10 years or 500 years is ‘old’ for a fungus or how much it differs between fungal species and lifestyles,” says senior author Kristin Aleklett of Lund University, Sweden.
A mushroom that decorates the forest floor is just a small part of a fungus. Beneath the surface lies its main body—a sprawling network of thread-like filaments called mycelium that spreads through soil or wood and sometimes connects with plant or tree roots. Some fungal networks are thought to live for hundreds to thousands of years.
Because the mycelium continually branches, grows, recycles old tissues, and sometimes breaks off into new networks, "one of the biggest difficulties lies in being able to define where a fungal individual begins and ends," says Aleklett.
That raises a series of questions: what exactly should scientists measure? Does a fungus' age begin when its underground network first forms, even if much of it is later replaced? If the underground network breaks apart into separate pieces that still share the same DNA, are they still one individual?
Unlike animals or trees, scientists can’t simply count birthdays or growth rings. Instead, they often rely on genetic tools to identify individual fungi and estimate their age based on how quickly the mycelium grows in the lab. But researchers cannot directly observe how the mycelium expands and dies back over seasons and years in the real world.
“I think it is thrilling that there is still so much basic research about fungi left to discover,” says Aleklett. “There is this large kingdom of organisms living alongside us that we still know so little about.”
Aging may also differ from one fungal species to another. Yeasts have a relatively simple life cycle, while others are more complicated. The longevity of symbiotic fungi that partner with plants may depend on the life of their hosts. Decomposer fungi might outlive a rotting log by branching through the soil to reach new food sources.
Rather than searching for a universal lifespan, the researchers argue that fungal longevity should be studied across different species and lifestyles. They propose combining genetic tracking, long-term lab experiments, and emerging technologies such as “fungi-on-a-chip” to observe fungal growth and persistence in unprecedented detail. That knowledge could deepen scientists’ understanding of the fungi that underpin the ecosystem, agriculture, and human health.
“If we want to be able to preserve fungal biodiversity and ecosystem services, we need to better understand what their life cycles look like, including how or when their lives end,” says Aleklett.
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This work was supported by funding from the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation, the Swedish Research Council, and the Swedish government.
Trends in Microbiology, Aleklett et al., "Exploring the concept of longevity in fungi" https://www.cell.com/trends/microbiology/fulltext/S0966-842X(26)00184-8
Trends in Microbiology, (@TrendsMicrobiol) published by Cell Press, is a monthly review journal that provides a multidisciplinary forum for the discussion of all aspects of microbiology—from cell biology and immunology to genetics and evolution—and ranges across virology, bacteriology, protozoology, and mycology. Visit http://www.cell.com/trends/microbiology. To receive Cell Press media alerts, please contact press@cell.com.
Hemipholiota populnea mushroom growing on a log.
Mycelium growing on a log in a beech forest.
Credit
Kristin Aleklett
Journal
Trends in Microbiology
Method of Research
Commentary/editorial
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
Exploring the concept of longevity in fungi
Article Publication Date
13-Aug-2026
Sugar molecule could help protect against a dangerous hospital fungus
Researchers have developed a potential new approach against the highly drug resistant hospital fungus Candida auris. They have discovered that a synthetic sugar molecule that is antural part fo the cell wall of the fungus, but is not present in humans could underpin a future vaccine, develop protective antibodies and form the basis of a prototype for a rapid diagnostic test.
Candida auris is an emerging, multidrug-resistant fungal pathogen that is spreading particularly in healthcare facilities. It is particaulrly dangerous in people with weakened immuni systems. First discovered in Japan in 2009, it has now spread worldwide. To date, neither vaccines nor rapid diagnostic methods are available for C. auris.
Now, in research published in the German chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie,a team including the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Freie Universität Berlin, and the Centre for Medical Mycology at the University of Exeter have identified a sugar structure that corresponds to a component of the C. auris surface. The molecule is a manmade versoion of the same structure that is found in the fungus, and it can be specifically recognised by the immune system, binding in a way that helps to direct the immune response e specifically against the fungus.
The sugar structure serves as the basis for a vaccine candidate and for protective antibodies. In addition, the researchers used one of these antibodies to develop a prototype for a rapid test to detect multiple Candida species in a lateral flow device format – similar to those used to detect the Covid virus..
“Through chemical synthesis, we can precisely replicate individual sugar structures of the fungus and determine which ones the immune system recognizes,” says Professor Peter H. Seeberger, director at the Max Planck Institute and co-author of the study. “This opens up the possibility for us to find a strategy to combat Candida auris.”
Developing a vaccine against the yeast C. auris is a particular challenge. Fungal cell walls consist largely of complex sugar structures. These do not exist as uniform structures but differ in length and linkage. It is therefore not easy to determine which of these structures the immune system recognizes, triggering a protective immune response.
For this reason, the researchers chemically synthesized the sugar structures in the laboratory rather than purfied it from the fungal cell wall. This allowed them to study individual molecules with precisely defined composition and structure. In the process, they identified a promising molecule consisting of four linked sugar building blocks that corresponds to the sugars on the surface of the fungi. It is a β-mannan tetrasaccharide that is recognised by antibodies.
To enable the immune system to specifically recognize this particular sugar structure, the sugar was linked to a carrier protein. The combination of sugar and protein is called a glycoconjugate and helps trigger a targeted immune response against the sugar structure.
In the study, an infection model using mice showed that vaccination with the glycoconjugate triggered a specific immune response. The animals produced antibodies that specifically recognized the synthetic sugar structure. In the vaccinated animals, the fungal load in the kidneys and spleen was reduced following infection.
“Our results show that a single, chemically defined sugar structure is sufficient to elicit a targeted immune response against Candida auris and to limit the infection in the animal model,” says Professor Seeberger. “This provides important preclinical evidence of efficacy for this vaccine approach.”
The researchers also developed an antibody that specifically recognises the sugar structure. In the animal model, this antibody likewise protected the mice from infection, resulting in a reduced fungal load in the spleen of passively immunised mice.
But the sugar structure can do even more: The antibodies can also be used to detect the fungus. The researchers used them to develop a rapid test based on a principle similar to that of a pregnancy or COVID-19 rapid test. The test detects structures on the surface of C. auris and could potentially enable rapid identification of the fungus.
“The fact that the same sugar structure can be used for a vaccine as well as for antibodies and a diagnostic test is particularly interesting. We are thus demonstrating the potential that chemically defined glycans have for infectious disease medicine,” says Professor Seeberger.
The researchers have achieved a series of successes: Using a single, chemically defined sugar molecule, they were able to develop a vaccine candidate, identify protective antibodies, and produce a prototype for a rapid test. The results combine vaccination, passive immunisation, and diagnostics based on a single defined sugar structure.
The findings build on earlier work by the research team, in which synthetic sugar structures from Candida were produced and examined for their immunological recognition. The current study now takes this approach a step further.
The approaches developed are still in preclinical development. The vaccine candidate and the antibodies have so far been tested in animal models. The rapid test is also initially a prototype. Further studies are required before it can potentially be used in humans.
Professor Neil Gow, of the University of Exeter’s MRC Centre for Medical Mycology, said: "The world has become increasing anxious about the emergence of Candida auris as a drug resistant and persistent fungal pathogen of humans. It has been exciting to be part of this collaboration to understand what parts of the C. auris yeast surface act as a signature of infection, and can be used to design immunotherapies and diagnostic tests."
The paper is titled ‘A Synthetic β-Mannan Epitope Enables Immunization and Detection of Candida auris’, and is published in Angewandte Chemie.
Journal
Angewandte Chemie
Method of Research
Experimental study
Subject of Research
Animals
Article Title
A Synthetic β-Mannan Epitope Enables Immunization and Detection of Candida auris
Article Publication Date
11-Aug-2026
