Review
Version 1
Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
The Luminous Fungi of Japan
Version 1
: Received: 3 May 2023 / Approved: 4 May 2023 / Online: 4 May 2023 (08:01:04 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Oba, Y.; Hosaka, K. The Luminous Fungi of Japan. J. Fungi 2023, 9, 615. Oba, Y.; Hosaka, K. The Luminous Fungi of Japan. J. Fungi 2023, 9, 615.
Abstract
Luminous fungi have long attracted public attention in Japan, from old folklore and fiction to current tourism, children’s toys, games and picture books. At present, 25 species of luminous fungi have been discovered in Japan, which correspond to approximately one-fourth of the globally recognized species. This species richness is arguably thanks to the abundant presence of mycophiles looking to find new mushroom species and the tradition of night-time activities, such as firefly watching, in Japan. Bioluminescence, a field of bioscience focused on luminous organisms, has long been studied by many Japanese researchers, including the biochemistry and chemistry of luminous fungi. A Japanese Nobel Prize winner, Osamu Shimomura (1928-2018), has primarily focused on the bioluminescence system of luminous fungi in the latter part of his life, and the total elucidation of the mechanism was finally accomplished by an international research team with representatives from Russia, Brazil, and Japan in 2018. In this review, we focused on multiple aspects related to luminous fungi of Japan, including myth, taxonomy, and modern sciences.
Keywords
bioluminescence; fungi; mushroom; Japan
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Life Sciences
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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