Mushrooms sprout from live frogs in India, shocking scientists

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Scientists have made the mysterious discovery of a frog with tiny mushrooms sprouting from its legs in the lush foothills of India’s Western Ghats.

Researchers at the World Wildlife Fund say this is the first time a mushroom has been found growing on the tissue of a living animal.

The frog was not captured for further study, so images of the amphibian with mushrooms growing near its hind legs were shared online, sparking intrigue among scientists.

This species of frog is the golden-backed frog (Hairalana Intermedia) are the creatures that live in this region, which is the most biodiverse region in the world.

Fungal experts identified the mushroom as a bonnet mushroom (Mycena sp.), which is known to occur primarily in rotting wood.

Some microorganisms, including bacteria and fungi, are known to grow together with living organisms, and most of them are commensal or at least benign.

However, some can cause infections under certain circumstances, such as the fungus that causes athlete’s foot, yeast infections, and the oral fungal disease candidiasis.

However, according to a study published in the journal Nature, no mushrooms have ever been recorded growing on a living organism. reptiles and amphibians.

“To our knowledge, there has never been a record of mushrooms growing from the flanks of a living frog,” the researchers said.

This may be because mushrooms require nutrients that are not normally present in sufficient quantities in the skin of any animal.

Researchers suspect that in this case, the monsoon-moist Western Ghats provided the ideal environment for mushroom growth, providing adequate moisture and organic matter.

The exact nature of the mushrooms growing on frogs, whether they are infectious or benign and skin-deep, remains unknown.

This may be a cause for concern, as frogs and hundreds of other amphibian species around the world are already under threat from another parasitic fungus called . Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis – It is more commonly known as chytrid fungus.

Chytridiomycosis infections disrupt the water and salt balance in amphibian skin, eventually leading to heart failure, leading to a steady decline in amphibian populations around the world.

However, recent studies have shown that this amphibian killer mushroom is present at low levels in frog hotspots across India.