Mushroom genus Cortinarius follows its own metabolic pathway

Anthraquinones from Cortinarius mushrooms change colour in acidic ( top ) and alkaline environments. Image: Jens Meyer (University of Jena) - What proves to be advantageous will be preserved in the long term. Put in very simple terms, this is the principle of evolution whereby organisms adapt to an environment in the best possible way. These adaptation processes often result in similar or the same traits in different groups of organisms, if their environment requires it. The streamlined body shape of fish and marine mammals, e.g. dolphins, is due to such 'convergent evolution'. Many other examples of convergent evolution can be found at the level of molecules or the metabolism. A team of researchers from the Institute of Pharmacy at the University of Jena and the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology - Hans Knöll Institute, together with their colleagues from the University of Freiburg, have discovered a new, hitherto unknown example of convergent evolution in the mushrooms genus Cortinarius (the webcaps).