Mushrooms and the Metaphysics of Identity (Mushroom Club General Meeting)

Visit a Los Angeles Mycological Society general meeting after the annual Wild Mushroom Fair at LA Arboretum.

PROGRAM: "Mushroom Abnormalities and Metaphysics of Identity" with guest speaker LAMS Resident Mycologist Rudy Diaz.

Living organisms are unique in that they show goal-oriented chemical actions that achieve self-maintenance and replication.

Although they give the appearance of direction, these functions are fulfilled through the random motions of molecules.

The central questions in biology, "the study of life," derive from a strange phenomenon, the emergence of “form” from “non-form.” It's like Buddhism's Heart Sutra says, "Form is emptiness and emptiness is form..."

Fungi, displaying remarkable tolerance for aberrations in form, serve as a window into basic properties of complex traits and their evolution.

In order to make sense of these “traits” in a genetic context, it is necessary to reevaluate assumptions made about how life operates in general.

Specifically, in asking the question “Why does this mushroom look abnormal?” we are confronted with a more intimidating question: “How can separate individuals look the same?”

The common answer claims that genes encode a “program” for the construction of forms. By sharing the “same” genes, two individuals follow the same program.

However, the genetic control of biological traits is not predetermined (Diaz et al., 2023). Rather, it is more appropriate to view similarities between individuals of a species as owing to genetic (i.e., informational) “constraints.”

In mushroom (fruiting body)-forming fungi, loose-enough constraints on development seem to have allowed many instances of repeated evolution in reproductive forms.

More info about LAMS events, including a biography of this month's speaker, is available on the LAMS Calendar page. Directions to location at the community center: LAMS Locations