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Mycelial cord

 

 
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Mycelial cord
 
 
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Mycelial cords are linear aggregations of parallel-oriented hyphae
Hypha

A hypha is a long, branching filamentous cell of a fungus, and also of unrelated Actinobacteria. In fungi, hyphae are the main mode of vegetative growth, and are collectively called a mycelium....
. The mature cords are composed of wide, empty vessel hyphae surrounded by narrower sheathing hyphae. Cords may look similar to plant
Plant

Plants are Life organisms belonging to the Kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae....
 root
Root

In vascular plants, the root is the organ of a plant body that typically lies below the surface of the soil. This is not always the case, however, since a root can also be aerial root or aerating ....
s, and also frequently have similar functions; hence they are also called rhizomorphs (literally, "root-forms").

Mycelial cords are capable of conducting nutrients over long distances.






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Hyphae
Mycelial cords are linear aggregations of parallel-oriented hyphae
Hypha

A hypha is a long, branching filamentous cell of a fungus, and also of unrelated Actinobacteria. In fungi, hyphae are the main mode of vegetative growth, and are collectively called a mycelium....
. The mature cords are composed of wide, empty vessel hyphae surrounded by narrower sheathing hyphae. Cords may look similar to plant
Plant

Plants are Life organisms belonging to the Kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae....
 root
Root

In vascular plants, the root is the organ of a plant body that typically lies below the surface of the soil. This is not always the case, however, since a root can also be aerial root or aerating ....
s, and also frequently have similar functions; hence they are also called rhizomorphs (literally, "root-forms").

Mycelial cords are capable of conducting nutrients over long distances. For instance, they can transfer nutrients to a developing fruiting body, or enable wood-rotting fungi to grow through soil from an established food base in search of new food sources. For parasitic fungi, they can help spread infection by growing from established clusters to uninfected parts. The cords of some wood-rotting fungi (like Serpula lacrymans
Serpula lacrymans

Serpula lacrymans is one of the fungus that are responsible for dry rot. It is a basidiomycete in the order Boletales."In the United Kingdom alone, the estimated cost of rectifying damage caused by dry rot is at least 150 million pounds per annum."...
) may be capable of penetrating masonry
Masonry

Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar , and the term "masonry" can also refer to the units themselves....
.

The mechanism of the cord formation is not yet precisely understood. Mathematical models
Neighbour-sensing model

The neighbour-sensing model is the proposed hypothesis of the fungi morphogenesis. The hypothesis suggests that each hypha in the fungal mycelium generates certain abstract Field that decreases when increasing the distance....
 suggest that some fields or gradient
Gradient

In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar field is a vector field which points in the direction of the greatest rate of increase of the scalar field, and whose magnitude is the greatest rate of change....
s of signalling chemicals, parallel to the cord axis, may be involved.