Two life stages of 'amphibious fungi' Outside gut: on host excrement (left), Inside gut: yeast-like growth (right)
Design is what links creativity and innovation. It shapes ideas to become practical and attractive propositions for users or customers. Design may be described as creativity deployed to a specific end.
Sir George Cox - What is Design and Why It Matters
Complexity versus simplicity is a common design tradeoff. Complexity always has a cost. As such, complexity is ideally minimized for equivalent functionality and quality… Adding complexity without adding functionality or quality is known as needless complexity. Complexity can be exciting and it is possible to get involved in making technologies, communications or ideas complex for the sake of complexity. Generally, this is a mistake as complexity costs more to develop, support and useIt's clear from these definitions of good design that good, intelligent, design is practical and has to suit the specific needs of the user or client. In other words, the thing being designed must have a clear purpose. It should also be minimally complex and maximally simple.
John Spacy, Design Expert - Design: Complexity vs Simplicity.
But what of purpose in the design of living organisms?
For that we need to turn to Creationism's favourite book, the Bible, where we find in the first creation story in Genesis 1, there didn't seem to be any purpose in creating any of the animals, they were just created on day 5 of Creation Week Mk I, before Adam, and told to multiply and be fruitful. It's not till we get to Creation Week Mk II in which the order of creation is reversed, that we find an attempt to explain the purpose of all the animals in the world as "an helpmeet" [sic] for man in the shape of the mythical Adam who was created first this time.
And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.Which means that the purpose for which this allegedly omniscient creator god created all living things, was a failure, but he created them anyway, which could explain the apparent pointlessness of so many living things.
Genesis 2: 18-20
Sadly for Creationists, this means that a fundamental principle of good design - fitness for purpose - was already violated on the day of the alleged creation of all living things, on whichever day of Creation Week, that was.
But all this is a myth, obviously, but a myth that a dwindling cult of Bible literalists, who call themselves Intelligent [sic] Design Creationists, believe to be a scientific [sic] account of the origin of living things, despite the obvious confusion over the order in which things happened. Nevertheless, Creationists insist all living organisms are examples of design by the supreme intelligence, the work of which they believe the Bible is describing.
And yest, as in so many other examples, in the following example, it is impossible to discern any of the principles of good, intelligent design. There is needless complexity, all for no discernible ultimate purpose, other than making more copies of a fungus.
It belongs to a new genus of fungi and was discovered recently by a research group led by the University of Ibaraki, Japan. Because they are biologists and so not Creationists, the scientists suggest that this fungus co-evolved with the cricket and so teaches us something about how these fungi evolved. To make matters worse for Creationists, the scientists describe the new species as an intermediate form between two groups of fungi, the saprobic and gut-inhabiting groups, the evolutionary relationship between which had been a mystery, until now.
As the news release from Ibaraki University explains:
Sometimes, the answers to questions about evolution can be found in the strangest of places. For example, researchers from Japan have now discovered that a fungus found in cave cricket feces can help to shine a light on fungal evolution.Technical details are given in the scientists' publication in the journal Mycologia:
In a study published last month in Mycologia, a research group led by the University of Tsukuba has revealed that a previously undescribed fungus could provide the key to understanding how fungi in the group Kickxellomycotina evolved.
Fungi are a highly diverse group of organisms that inhabit many different habitats and ecological niches. The subphylum Kickxellomycotina is no exception: these fungi can range from living as saprobes (fungi that feed on decaying wood, leaves, and other organic matter) on soil or dung, to inhabiting the guts of arthropods. However, the evolutionary transition between these life cycles is unclear.
The Kickxellales is a group within the Kickxellomycotina, and up until now these fungi were considered to be mostly saprobes. The researchers found that the new fungus, named Unguispora rhaphidophoridarum, represented a new genus. However, it did not grow under the same conditions as other fungi in the Kickxellales, and instead demonstrated a new life cycle for this group—one where the fungus inhabits the gut of its host, and is also dependent on its host for survival.During a survey of fungi that underwent early evolutionary divergence, we found a new fungus that grows on cave cricket feces. On the basis of its morphology and ecology, we concluded that this fungus is a member of the Kickxellales.
Our findings suggest that the Kickxellomycotina evolved in association with the guts of animals, including arthropods.
Professor Yousuke Degawa, senior author.
Sugadaira Research Station,
Mountain Science Center,
University of Tsukuba, Nagano, Japan.
The researchers use the term 'amphibious fungi' (not to be confused with aquatic hyphomycetes—a group of fungi that colonize decaying deciduous leaves in streams and rivers—which are also called amphibious fungi) to describe fungi like U. rhaphidophoridarum. This new genus has two life stages: one inside the host gut and the other outside, such as on feces and exuvia (the molted exoskeletons of arthropods). Most of the species in the gut-inhabiting group within the Kickxellomycotina are found in aquatic insects.
Although it is difficult to determine how ancestral fungi in the Kickxellomycotina lived, the results of this study offer a new way of looking at how some of them evolved to inhabit the guts of animals. Future investigations of fungi in this group that have life cycles associated with the animal gut will uncover the evolutionary stages between saprobes and gut-inhabiting fungi, as shown by Unguispora.
ABSTRACTThe interesting thing is how the two phases of this fungus, the one that lives in the gut of the cricket and the phase that grows on the faeces, are like two different groups of fungi. But as to purpose, it seems then that the only purpose of this fungus is to make more copies of itself, to grow on the faeces of a cricket to produce spores which live in the gut of the cricket until they are expelled in faeces to grow there to produce more spores, and so ad infinitum.
Kickxellomycotina encompasses two fungal groups: a saprobic group in excrement and soil and an arthropod gut-inhabiting group. The evolutionary transition between these two lifestyles is unclear due to the lack of knowledge on intermediate forms and lifestyles. Here, we describe a new species, Unguispora rhaphidophoridarum, that was isolated from the excrement of cave crickets (Rhaphidophoridae) in Japan. This species has a novel lifestyle that is intermediate between the saprobic and gut-inhabiting groups. The new genus Unguispora is a member of the Kickxellales and characterized by the sterile appendages born on the sporocladium and by the claw-like ornamentation of the sporangiole. Phylogenetic analysis based on 18S and 28S nuclear ribosomal DNA showed that this fungus is distinct from all known kickxellalean genera and is sister to Linderina. The sporangiospore of the new species germinated only in anaerobiosis and grew in a yeast-like form. The yeast-like cells, defined as “secondary spores,” germinated into hyphae in aerobiosis. In the alimentary tract of cave crickets, the sporangiola are attached to the proventriculus (foregut) by the claw-like ornamentation and multiplicate in the same yeast-like form as under culture. We introduce a new term, “amphibious fungi,” to describe fungi that have two life stages, one outside and the other inside the host gut, like U. rhaphidophoridarum. The discovery of an amphibious fungus in Kickxellales, which was formerly considered to be only saprobic, suggests that Kickxellomycotina has evolved in association with the animal gut.Graphic Abstract
Tomohiko Ri, Mai Suyama, Yusuke Takashima, Kensuke Seto & Yousuke Degawa (2022)
A new genus Unguispora in Kickxellales shows an intermediate lifestyle between saprobic and gut-inhabiting fungi
Mycologia, DOI: 10.1080/00275514.2022.2111052
© 2022 2022 Informa UK Limited (A Taylor Francis Group).
Reprinted under the terms of s60 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988..
So, perhaps a follower of the Creationist cult can explain where the principles of good intelligent, design, as outlined at the start of this post, have been applied in this example from the natural world, and why this should not be regarded as the result of a mindless, utilitarian process such as evolution by natural selection with no plan and no intelligence behind it.
Or perhaps they would prefer their beloved creator god continue to be seen as an incompetent designer who doesn’t understand the basic principles of good design.
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