drawing by marguerita
Well ,some like to look for syphillis and others ,
truffle-lovers be advised — some of the new discoveries may reveal more than you really wanted to know.
Truffles are the fruit of fungi that infect the roots of certain trees.
They are of keen interest to pigs,
particularly sows, because some secrete androstenol, a hormone produced by boars before mating. People who use sows to hunt for truffles often find it hard to prevent a sex-crazed animal from eating the truffle she has found and may lose fingers in the attempt.
The truffle then benefits from the purpose of sex, which is of course to generate new combinations of genes and fresh diversity.
It turns out the truffles, too, have sex lives, said Dr. Francis Martin, a plant biologist at the University of Nancy inFrance and leader of the research team. The precious fungi had long been thought to lead an asexual existence, but Dr. Martin and his colleagues have found that they have two sexes, or mating types.
So it produces the redolent odors that will compel surface dwellers of all kinds to search for it, eat it and distribute its spores after they have dined.
The fungus earns its keep, providing more food for the oak than the tree’s roots can obtain alone.
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