[busssard]

We will see more and more fungi infecting mammals in the coming years. Mammals and birds evolved higher body temperatures in part to protect from fungal infections. As most fungi are dying above 37°C. But a high temperature summer is a selection pressure on any mushroom trying to survive, and hence might evolve to survive 40° summers and thus also survive in our bodies.

I really hope cordyceps is one of the last to do this step.

[kalenx]

Not sure about that. Outside temperature above 37 were common in many highly populated areas, even before "high temperature summer" (e.g., India, Indonesia, most of Brazil, etc.). If there was an actual selection pressure, we would have seen its results by now.

[kevlened]

We have already seen selection pressure results in Candida auris

https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mbio.01397-19 (2019)

https://radiolab.org/podcast/fungus-amungus (2020)

[Lanzaa]

Have we not?

> there are many fungal infections that occur more frequently in tropical zones or are restricted to certain regions within the tropics [0]

I worry that one of the large variety of fungal species not resistant to high temperature will evolve to be resistant and cause great harm to our society. Similar to the way animal spillover events, like covid-19, are so devastating. A novel pathogen introduced to a naive population.

[0] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9834271/

[MichaelZuo]

Would a daily peak above 37C counts for the parents point? It has to be longer term temperature I imagine.

[N_Lens]

One of the last, you say? The last of Us?