S2E04 - Undergrove (Mycorrhizae mushrooms)

#Undergrove #AEGGames #mushrooms #fungi #mycorrhizae #mothertree #BoardGames #Science Summary Join us for a trip belowground as we explore Undergrove, a game about mushrooms and nutrient networks by Elizabeth Hargrave and Mark Wootten. We cover some basics of fungal biology, how and why these fungi form partnerships with trees, and the controversial idea of a "mother tree" selectively nourishing its seedlings through these networks. Timestamps 00:20 Introductions 02:33 Killer vines and efficient fungi 07:20 Game overview 17:30 What are fungi? 20:56 Different types of mycorrhizae 27:48 Nutrient exchange 30:45 The mother tree controversy 41:32 Nitpick corner 45:57 Grades 56:09 Avatar inspiration 58:04 Final thoughts Links Undergrove (Official Site) Lovevine parasitizing wasp galls (Current Biology) And Youtube video Massive mycorrhizae network experiment  (Nature) Ze Frank does slime molds (Youtube)  Finding The Mother Tree (Wikipedia) Suzanne Simard's TED talk (TED.com)  Point-by-point rebuttal (UCD Dublin; requires submitting information)  Another rebuttal (Scientific American)  Find our socials at https://www.gamingwithscience.net    This episode of Gaming with Science™ was produced with the help of the University of Georgia and is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. Full Transcript (Some platforms truncate the transcript due to length restrictions. If so, you can always find the full transcript on https://www.gamingwithscience.net/ ) Jason  0:05  Hello, and welcome to the gaming with science podcast where we talk about the science behind some of your favorite games.  Brian  0:11  Today we're going to discuss Undergrove by AEG. Hey, how's it going? Welcome back to Gaming with Science. I'm Brian.  Jason  0:23  This is Jason Anny  0:24  And I'm Anny. Brian  0:25  Anny, how's it going? We've been talking about trying to get you on literally forever, and we finally found a good game to do it. Can you introduce yourself?  Anny  0:32  Yeah. My name is Anny Chung. I'm an associate professor in Plant Biology and Plant Pathology at the University of Georgia, I would classify myself as an ecologist. And what I usually am interested in is the ecology of plants and microbes that interact with plants, usually below ground, which is very appropriate for this game.  Brian  0:54  Anny's a fancy professor. She has an endowment. She's the Haynes. What is it? The Haynes professor for underground ecology, or below ground ecology.  Anny  1:02  It's very specific. I stumbled into it. But the, I think the full title is The Haynes Endowed Professor for below-ground botany, so specifically only below ground. Yeah, I don't get to do anything above ground. Brian  1:19  You have a counterpart who does the above ground stuff Anny  1:21  I do have a counterpart, Megan de Marsh, who is the above ground botany person. Brian  1:28  anyway. Well, your research is really cool, and I'm really glad to have you on. I know that you've said that you are not a card carrying mycologist, but I also know that you study fungi a lot more than most people that I know. For someone who is not a card carrying mycologist, I know it's a big part of your work. Speaker 1  1:42  Yeah, and that is right, in terms of the microbes that we do study below ground. My lab focuses on fungi, quite a lot more than we do bacteria. But yeah, I think the reason I say that I'm not a card carrying mycologist is that, that was never a part of my formal training, as I was doing my degrees coming into this position, but a lot of our work does involve fungi, and I do like them a lot.  Brian  2:07  Well, that's fine, Jason and I like bacteria, but you're still allowed anyway. Okay, so before we get into talking about Undergrove, and I am very excited to talk about it, because this is, this might be a spicy conversation. I did a little bit more research on this, and this is, there's some controversy here. Controversy can lead to fu