In the Paul Stamets TED talk, he never says that humans specifically are genetically close to fungi. He said that between all the different kingdoms of life, animals and fungi were more biologically similar than any other two kingdoms.
That definitely explains why we can borrow useful defenses from fungi, like antibiotics, but it’s definitely not a reason to believe that our immune systems would have any difficulties differentiating between certain fungi and our own bodies, at least not for reasons related to direct genetic similarities.
Klear@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
TIL Stamets is named after a real mycologist.
Mobiuthuselah@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I was thinking, “he is a real mycologist,” before I figured out to whom you were referring.
Dave@lemmy.nz 1 year ago
Yeah, I don’t know if @Stamets@lemmy.world is a mycologist but he’s certainly named after one.
Stamets@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Named after an Astromycologist anyway. I try to distance myself as much as I can from the Union busting real world mushroom man