Mushroom ‘Zombie’ Cannot Attack Humans, Here’s The Reason

Jakarta –

The depiction of an outbreak of a brain disease caused by a fungal infection in The Last of Us is purely fictional. Although the Cordyceps fungus as it is called in the film actually exists in the real world, this type of fungus cannot attack and turn humans into cannibal zombies.

Species, such as parasitic fungi, only infect insects or other invertebrates. The fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis like in the movie The Last of Us for example, this type of parasite specifically infects ants and turns them into zombies.

Biological scientist from the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) Professor Rosichon Ubaidillah MPhil, PhD, said that parasite and host associations (Ophiocordyceps and ants) require millions of years of co-evolution under the process of natural selection.

“It takes millions of years for the Ophiocordyceps parasite to be able to ‘jump’ to attack human vertebrates and other mammals,” he said during live Eureka! Zombie attack, Monday (30/1/2023) night.

Even to jump to a different species, according to him, is not easy. This is proven by the results of research by scientists in Thailand and the United States which identified more than 200 species of Ophiocordyceps that can infect hosts from 10 orders of insects and spiders.

“Not all of them can manipulate behavior. Isolation of the infected Ophiocordyceps fungus from different ants, in fact, does not necessarily cause ants to become zombies,” said the graduate of the Faculty of Biology, Gadjah Mada University.

“I don’t think Ophiocordyceps can grow at the temperature of human blood (warm blood) and is not able to fight our immune system to infect our brain and nervous system at the same time. It took thousands of years of evolution,” he said.

He added, there are so many species of parasites that can ‘create’ insect zombies in Indonesia, but there are still many that have not been studied.

Parasitic species such as ‘zombie’ fungi also have the potential to be used for biological pest control (biological control agents) and certain disease drugs. “This is a good opportunity because Indonesia below the equator is very rich in microbes that have the potential for medicine,” he said.

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(rns/fay)