Study
Electrical potentials in the ectomycorrhizal fungus Laccaria bicolor after a rainfall event
Fukasawa, Y.; Akai, D.; Takehi, T.; Adamatzky, A.
Fungal Ecology, 2023
Electrodes were placed in fruiting bodies of an ectomycorrhizal fungus growing in the ground in a forest, rather than in laboratory culture, and the potential between them recorded across a period spanning a rainfall event.
- Studied in
- Laccaria bicolor
- Sample size
- fruiting bodies recorded in situ in a forest
Electrical potentials were low and largely unstructured before rain and increased after it, with the signals from nearby fruiting bodies more strongly related to each other than to those further away.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Electrical activity in fungi occurs under natural field conditions and varies with environmental change such as rainfall.
How NatureHQ reads it
This is the study that answers the most obvious objection to the whole literature: that everything recorded so far comes from cultures in a laboratory, where an implanted electrode and an artificial substrate could plausibly account for the lot. Recording in the ground, in weather, is a real advance. It also demonstrates the plainest alternative reading of the activity — that it tracks what is happening to the fungus, water above all — which is a considerably duller explanation than language and considerably better supported.
- One species, one site, one rainfall event; a correlation across a single environmental change.
- Field recording adds noise sources — soil moisture, temperature, electrode chemistry — that are hard to separate from the fungus.
- Says nothing about whether the activity carries information.
Wiring up a mushroom in a wood, and waiting for rain
Does the electrical activity recorded from fungi in the laboratory happen in the ground, in weather?
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Elsevier journalsPublished in an Elsevier journal.
doi.org/10.1016/j.funeco.2023.101229
Checked against Crossref on 2026-08-31, and they agree on the title, the authors and the year.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-08-31.