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Medicine Science

Chemists Grow Soil Fungus On Cheerios, Discover New Antifungal Compounds 77

Posted by Soulskill from the part-of-a-balanced-and-really-disgusting-breakfast dept.
MTorrice writes: Many drugs that treat bacterial and fungal infections were found in microbes growing in the dirt. These organisms synthesize the compounds to fend off other bacteria and fungi around them. To find possible new drugs, chemists try to coax newly discovered microbial species to start making their arsenal of antimicrobial chemicals in the lab. But fungi can be stubborn, producing just a small set of already-known compounds.

Now, one team of chemists has hit upon a curiously effective and consistent trick to prod the organisms to start synthesizing novel molecules: Cheerios inside bags. Scientists grew a soil fungus for four weeks in a bag full of Cheerios and discovered a new compound that can block biofilm formation by an infectious yeast. The chemists claim that Cheerios are by far the best in the cereal aisle at growing chemically productive fungi.
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Chemists Grow Soil Fungus On Cheerios, Discover New Antifungal Compounds More

Chemists Grow Soil Fungus On Cheerios, Discover New Antifungal Compounds

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  • All jokes aside (Score:5, Funny)

    by shuz ( 706678 ) on Friday October 17, 2014 @10:04AM (#48168873) Homepage Journal

    What did the clown say to the mycologist?

    "I'm a fungi"

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      What do you call a mushroom that buys everyone drinks? A fungi to be around.

      • A mushroom walks into a bar.

        The bartender says "We don't serve your kind here."

        The mushrooms says "Why not, I'm a fungi."

    • What did the mycologist say? "How many of you are there?"

    • I had to switch the voice in my head to a different accent to get that one :)

      ("funghee" vs "funguy" for those unsure what I'm rambling about)

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:Biofilm (Score:5, Funny)

      by CaptainDork ( 3678879 ) on Friday October 17, 2014 @10:23AM (#48169051)

      Biofilm is the scientific term that has been miss-used in the swamps of Louisiana referring to documentaries of the stagnant waterways locally known as, "bayou films."

    • Not sure why you're joking, that is absolutely true. Well, except the part about showering; showering hardly hurts your skin flora at all. (Unless you're showering in bleach or something.)

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • Generally soap doesn't kill anything, it just makes things that are not water soluble, soluble in the water-soap solution, and thus easy to wash away.

          • > it just makes things that are not water soluble, soluble in the water-soap solution

            Like... cell membranes? Lots of surfactants have antiseptic properties: for example, cocamidopropyl betaine [wikipedia.org]. In fact, I'd guess that most surfactants are at least mild antiseptics.

    • ... also makes you less attractive to parasites that use CO2 to find you, such as mosquitos.

  • Cheerios have a very large surface area relative to size, making them an ideal choice for growing bacteria / fungus.

    • Cheerios have a very large surface area relative to size, making them an ideal choice for growing bacteria / fungus.

      All of the "flake" cereals have Cheerios beat on surface area:volume.

      • But no depth to supply the fungus with the nutrition necessary for life.

      • Don't bet on that, Cheerios have a lattice like internal structure that has orders of magnitude more surface area than what it would have with a smooth surface. You're intestines work on the same principle, they are lined with microscopic "fingers" that maximise the surface area used to absorb nutrients, without those fingers you would starve to death in a matter of weeks.

        While on the subject there's a good chance that rocks that have an internal structure similar to cheerio are an essential part of the

  • Next 24 Hours News Cycle (Score:4, Funny)

    by tiberus ( 258517 ) on Friday October 17, 2014 @10:08AM (#48168925)

    Scientific Community

    Cheerios are by far the best in the cereal aisle at growing chemically productive fungi

    Blue Press

    Cheerios discovered to harbor a wide range of funguses

    • Re:Next 24 Hours News Cycle (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 17, 2014 @10:31AM (#48169153)

      Scientific Community

      Cheerios are by far the best in the cereal aisle at growing chemically productive fungi

      Blue Press

      Cheerios discovered to harbor a wide range of funguses

      Marketing: Cheerios might cure Ebola!

  • Grow helpful fungi with this one weird trick! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 17, 2014 @10:10AM (#48168935)

    The disease killing secrets the cereal manufacturers don't want you to know.

  • Oat flour (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Not suprising, haven't oat flour mixtures been a growing medium of choice for a long time among many who culture more "recreational" fungi?

  • The idea to put the Cheerios in a bag instead of a flask came in 2011, when Cichewicz stumbled upon a how-to blog for growing psychedelic mushrooms. Those growers use big, breathable plastic bags called mushroom bags. One 50-cent bag, Cichewicz calculated, would provide the same growing surface area as 18 Erlenmeyer flasks.

    Sometimes having all the money to buy the best equipment doesn't lead to the best solutions. Turns out some necessity can drive invention. Might even be called its...mother.

    I looked into

    • You work inside the oven? Hmm. I guess that might work - if you're really short.

      • Setting aside the GP's bit about pulling out a rack to use as a work surface, some ovens are larger [staticflickr.com] than others. Given the magic mushrooms context and the odd historical trend of certain folks employed in mortuary roles adding embalming fluid to recreational substances in the 90s (is that still a "thing?"), maybe the GP was operating out of a full service Dearly Departed Disposal Department facility.

        That said, I don't know why a thinking person wouldn't just opt for a home-built laminar flow cabinet [wikipedia.org], which

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by TheCarp ( 96830 )

          > the odd historical trend of certain folks employed in mortuary roles adding embalming fluid to recreational
          > substances in the 90s (is that still a "thing?"),

          I don't believe this was ever "a thing" as much as an old wives tale. Now, its not exactly unheard of for something to start as a rumor and then for some idiot to try it. Hell, once, long ago, I spent a good hour laughing my ass off at some guy who came into a chat room exclaiming that he was, right that moment, engaged in the process of making

  • Wondering if these same compounds, inside us after eating, would also enable fungal growth, leading to potential illness..? (Or superpowers? ;)

  • So, my kids are OK ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by CaptainDork ( 3678879 ) on Friday October 17, 2014 @10:23AM (#48169061)

    ... for eating Cheerios off the floor.

    • ... for eating Cheerios off the floor.

      exactly, there had to be an explanation why kids could eat the cereal/funk they find under back seat of the minivan and never get sick!

  • Someone called you out on having moldy bags of cereal, and you're pretending that it is cutting edge research. Like anyone's going to fall for that!

  • As the father of teenage boys, I could have told them Cheerios are great at growing fungus years ago.

  • Yay! Go cheerios + science. I'm a happy nerd.
  • Who knew that you could grow magical mushrooms in Cheerios?

    • My scientific scam sense is tingling. I suspect that the scientists were just looking for a way to charge their munchies bill on a project account.

      Next up: New anti-fungal compounds can be grown on pizza, cocaine and whores!

      • Any anti-fungal compounds found on your local whores probably came from a tube procured from the corner drugstore, but the potential efficacy of pizza and cocaine substrates may indeed warrant further investigation. I'll start printing up the requisite applications [nih.gov].

  • What the f*ck? (Score:3)

    by TubeSteak ( 669689 ) on Friday October 17, 2014 @10:54AM (#48169371) Journal

    Also, Cheerios overcame a common problem in growing fungi. Standard growth media varies in composition from batch to batch. These small variations can alter fungi growth, meaning researchers canâ(TM)t consistently produce the same set of metabolites with each experiment. However, one Cheerio is the same as another, box to box, batch to batch, today or years from now.

    "Standard" media that isn't consistent sounds like a massive failure of quality control by the manufacturer.
    Does no one make a quality growth media?

  • I did not know I have a microbial lab on top of my refrigerator! I kept throwing out old boxes of cheerios!

    Cheerios are very good baby sitters too. Empty a small portion of them in the tray of the high chair and the infants will have hours of fun picking them one at time and inspecting them individually and find their mouth with their tiny hands by trial and error.

  • Why Trix didn't work (Score:5, Funny)

    by Marginal Coward ( 3557951 ) on Friday October 17, 2014 @11:07AM (#48169499)

    "Silly Fungi - Trix are for kids!"

  • I'm going to auction off my stinky pantry on eBay.

  • No wonder I never seem to have a cold or other infections. I eat them almost every morning.

  • Considering how much a 12 oz box of Cheerios costs, these guys must have a direct line to a consistent source of funding.

  • The chemists claim that Cheerios are by far the best in the cereal aisle at growing chemically productive fungi.

    I wonder how much spin the marketing team at General Mills will have to put on this to be able to use it in advertising. I'd buy them for having the quote above printed on the box.

  • Slashvertising was bad before, but now we're shilling for General Mills? That's it, I'm out.
  • This supports their notion that Cheerios have a large amount of natural ingredients. If Cheerios were mostly artificial they wouldn't likely grow much of anything. It would be interesting to try Cheerios vs store brand, regular vs honey-nut (or other varieties) and see how they do.
    • I see a large grant in your future.

      • I see a large grant in your future.

        A grant from General Mills or another cereal producer, perhaps. As someone who has spent time working on federal (in particular NIH, NSF, DOE) grant applications I can tell you that this wouldn't fly with them - at least, not in the current fiscal climates that they all face.

  • ...repeated attempts to get ANYTHING to grow on a Big Mac have predictably met with failure.

    • repeated attempts to get ANYTHING to grow on a Big Mac have predictably met with failure.

      WTF? Have you not seen the size of the people who eat those things?

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