Fungi digest the other way round from us: enzymes are secreted straight into the wood to break it down on the spot, and only then does the mycelium absorb what has dissolved. Thanks to ligninase they are among the few organisms able to attack lignin; without them dead wood would simply pile up. The further the mycelium spreads through a rotting log, the more minerals return to the soil, and that same mycelium wires several root systems into one underground mycorrhizal network. On another branch of the kingdom, yeasts abandon filaments altogether, budding and fermenting sugar into fizzing CO₂.
Fungi digest the other way round from us: enzymes are secreted straight into the wood to break it down on the spot, and only then does the mycelium absorb what has dissolved. Thanks to ligninase they are among the few organisms able to attack lignin; without them dead wood would simply pile up. The further the mycelium spreads through a rotting log, the more minerals return to the soil, and that same mycelium wires several root systems into one underground mycorrhizal network. On another branch of the kingdom, yeasts abandon filaments altogether, budding and fermenting sugar into fizzing CO₂.
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