Experts hailed the new study as outlining how ‘unpredictable’ the evolution of fungi can be , might be a possibility due to global warming, warns a new study.
The study found that raised temperatures can cause pathogenic fungi present throughout the world – known as Cryptococcus deneoformans – to speed up its adaptive responses – which could lead to heat resistance and a greater potential for causing deadly diseases.
They found that the rate of mutations in transposons were five times higher in fungi raised at body temperature compared with fungi grown at 30 degrees. The mobilisation of transposable elements also worryingly appeared to increase more in fungi living in mice, with all three transposable elements mobilising in the fungus genome within just ten days of infecting the mice.