#toxocysts

[mudwerks]

(via Carnivorous oyster mushrooms can kill roundworms with “nerve gas in a lollipop” | Ars Technica)

The oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) is a staple of many kinds of cuisine, prized for its mild flavors and a scent vaguely hinting at anise. These cream-colored mushrooms are also one of several types of carnivorous fungi that prey on nematodes (roundworms) in particular. The mushrooms have evolved a novel mechanism for paralyzing and killing its nematode prey: a toxin contained within lollipop-like structures called toxocysts that, when emitted, cause widespread cell death in roundworms within minutes. Scientists have now identified the specific volatile organic compound responsible for this effect, according to a new paper published in the journal Science Advances.

[skullzy20]

I have so many pathos clamps to farm 😔

[alteredsilicone]

I like putting silencer mods on guns so I can use whatever I want with Ivara

pew pew

[retfarcyroeht]

My Poor Incarnon Choices?

I guess I have the inability to pick metas in my Steel Path Circuit runs. So far, I have the Furax, Furis and am now working on the Dual Ichor Incarnon.

Why the Ichor (when most Incarnon meless lack the flair and power of their ranged counterparts)?

Because it seems interesting and I want to see if I could do something with it. I liked the toxic cloud AoE potential (throw some range on it to help the blades spread it around a bit). Mod the blades for Viral so those clouds do a bit more to Corpus and stripped Grineer.

I also can imagine running it with Contagion Cloud for even more toxic warfare (Good Queen Saryn weapon?)

Condition Overload also comes to mind.

The other thing I liked is the health regen on kill. I'm looking at combining this with Wisp motage, blue shards, Healing Return, Rejuvenation, Arcane Grace, Arcane Reaper and other such foolishness... just because.

I'm also gunning for the Dual Toxocyst for the built in CO.

The grind though, lol.

[infestedslime]

Oh god I’m gonna have such a hard time deciding what incarnon adapters I want this week. I’m stuck between torid (which turns into a really good beam weapon that spreads to like 6 other enemies), dual Toxocyst (which turns into a full auto weapon that also has spreading damage), and dual ichor (which leaves a big toxin cloud and it’s also the coolest looking weapon). It wouldn’t be so tough If I didn’t have to wait another 6 weeks to get whichever one I don’t choose.

[possessedscholar]

What they don’t tell you about Warframe’s Incarnon Genesis adapters is that they make you say sentences that five years ago would have sounded absolutely divorced from reality.

“This Latron Prime is Steel Path ready.”

“Hold on let me get my endgame Burston Prime.”

“I think I want to use the Dual Toxocyst.”

-Sentences formerly only uttered by the deranged.

[swiftrunnerfelidae]

I'm playing an Excavation Arbitration against Infested. I bring my beloved Loki Prime, along with three incarnon weapons - the burston prime, the dual toxocyst, and the prisma skana. All three have builds that can tangle with steel path and crush it without a problem. The randos in the squad brought Revenant Prime, Octavia Prime, and Nezha Prime. They then proceed to bungle the mission so badly we lose half of the extractors, two of them die, the third bails after only the third successful extraction, and meanwhile I just hold down an entire extractor by myself from start to finish with it taking barely a scratch, while all three of them combined fail to hold down the other one they popped at the same time. And people have the gall to say Loki needs a rework.

[baladesilver]

Finally! I have become the manifestation of Yareli! No shot shall be a white damage ever again! The days of normal, non-critical damage are no more!

Accounting for her passive, this is Dual Toxocyst's base Critical Chance (simulated using Creeping Bullseye). I literally can't not crit with this thing. It's Red Crit city from now on.

[xipiti]

The oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) is a staple of many kinds of cuisine, prized for its mild flavors and a scent vaguely hinting at anise. These cream-colored mushrooms are also one of several types of carnivorous fungi that prey on nematodes (roundworms) in particular. The mushrooms have evolved a novel mechanism for paralyzing and killing its nematode prey: a toxin contained within lollipop-like structures called toxocysts that, when emitted, cause widespread cell death in roundworms within minutes. Scientists have now identified the specific volatile organic compound responsible for this effect, according to a new paper published in the journal Science Advances.

Carnivorous fungi like the oyster mushroom feed on nematodes because these little creatures are plentiful in soil and provide a handy protein source. Different species have evolved various mechanisms for hunting and consuming their prey. For instance, oomycetes are fungus-like organisms that send out "hunter cells" to search for nematodes. Once they find them, they form cysts near the mouth or anus of the roundworms and then inject themselves into the worms to attack the internal organs. Another group of oomycetes uses cells that behave like prey-seeking harpoons, injecting the fungal spores into the worm to seal its fate.

Other fungi produce spores with irritating shapes like stickles or stilettos. The nematodes swallow the spores, which get caught in the esophagus and germinate by puncturing the worm's gut. There are sticky branch-like structures that act like superglue; death collars that detach when nematodes swim through them, injecting themselves into the worms; and a dozen or so fungal species employ snares that constrict in under a second, squeezing the nematodes to death.

The oyster mushroom eschews these physical traps in favor of a chemical mechanism. P. ostreatus is what's known as a "wood rotter" that targets dead trees, but wood is relatively poor in protein. Its long branching filaments (called hyphae) are the part of the 'shroom that grows into the rotting wood. Those hyphae are home to the toxocysts. When nematodes encounter the toxocysts, the cysts burst, and the nematodes typically become paralyzed and die within minutes. Once the prey is dead, the hyphae grow into the nematode bodies, dissolving the contents and absorbing the slurry for the nutrients.

Read the rest

[yeeters-muse-archive]

Mesa Kuldevra

Weight: 575lbs (260.4kgs) (because human flesh is trapped in her metal chassis with a metal nervous system and the Infested adding more flesh on the exterior of her chassis)

Bio: With the Tenno believing that they could free this Mesa from the clutches of the high-ranking Corpus official, Alad V, they used Transference to free Mesa from the man’s collar. Sadly, this was a mistake as she went on a murderous rampage, killing everyone in the vicinity, even her former master and the Tenno and their respective warframe. One day however while on shift during a free day where all protectors are active, a Nidus, another Warframe from her universe, came to her and infected the feral biomechanical beings with his own version of the Infested. Over time has she changed in behavior and even gained the ability to speak, a rare sight for any Warframe in general. She now works alongside any other Warframe team to make the Origin System a better place.

Loadout: Primary: Mutalist Quanta; a Infested version of a Corpus, two-pronged beam rifle that has changed into an automatic rifle that has a secondary firing mechanism for 3 meter (9.8ft) Infested spore bubbles. Secondary: Dual Toxocyst; a pair of dual pistols with a slow fire rate that benefits from headshots which would apply a deadly viratic mutation. Melee: the Innodem; acquired before Kuldevra got caught by Akad V, this highly adaptive dagger is of Orokin in origin. It was used to protect the weak by elites, but it fell out of style and was relegated to gift status to remind said elites of the days of old. Nowadays, this weapon has been imbued with the power of the void and an incornon form that increases its range and finishing strikes. Companion: Plagius the Panzer Vulpaphyla; a companion from the second moon of Mars that has been completely taken over by the Infested. This creature can speew out deadly needles that infect their enemy with a deadly virus. Even upon death can this creature be useful as it reverts to a larval state that hovers among Kuldevra’s shoulder.

Image is a screenshot from Warframe.

⚠️ Warning ⚠️ : This is for @nexus-of-heavies a muse blog that requires viewers to be of the US legal age for marriage or higher. If you wish to reblog this bio for one of my muses due to the artwork, please take this into account.

[sciencespies]

The Toxin That Helps Oyster Mushrooms Devour Worm Flesh

https://sciencespies.com/news/the-toxin-that-helps-oyster-mushrooms-devour-worm-flesh/

The Toxin That Helps Oyster Mushrooms Devour Worm Flesh

Consider the oyster mushroom. It’s a mild thing, a pert, often creamy-colored whorl of fungus that goes well with thyme sautéed in butter. But among scientists who study mushrooms, it has earned a reputation for activities more sinister than you’d expect from a fungus found in fine dining. The oyster mushroom is a carnivore.

The mushroom’s usual diet of damp logs is low in nitrogen. To get that essential element, it feeds on microscopic nematodes, a type of worm. When a worm makes the mistake of passing over the fungus, the oyster mushroom paralyzes and kills it, devouring the animal’s nitrogen-rich flesh with root-like tendrils called hyphae.

Outside the animal kingdom, Venus flytraps, pitcher plants and others are well known for their macabre meal-making. But fungi, too, have an appetite for flesh, and it’s not just the oyster mushroom, although it is the only carnivorous fungus you’ll generally find in your grocery store. Some fungi craft sticky nets laced with tempting scents to snare their prey. Others create deadly collars that constrict as the worm struggles, immobilizing the prey as the fungus’s hyphae penetrate its body. Some even release tiny sickle-shape spores that, when swallowed by a nematode, wreak havoc from within.

The scenarios all end with the worm’s body invaded by the threads of its hungry captor.

The oyster mushroom’s weapon of choice seems to be a toxin: Worms that touch the fungus are paralyzed, and their cells fall apart as they succumb to the hyphae. In a paper published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, researchers report that they’ve identified the substance, which is contained in globes that they compare to lollipops. To the scientists’ surprise, it is a fairly common molecule, rather than an exotic, highly evolved substance. But to the hapless worms, it’s deadly.

Fluorescence imaging of mitochondria in nematode skin tissue before and after exposing them to oyster mushrooms.Ching-Han Lee

Before they knew the toxin’s identity, the researchers were familiar with its effects, said Yen-Ping Hsueh, a researcher at the Institute of Molecular Biology of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, and an author of the new paper. In 2020, the team described how toxins get into worms’ bodies through the sensitive tips of the creature’s small sensing organs.

“They really paralyze the worms within a minute,” Dr. Hsueh said. “It’s very dramatic.”

Once the toxin reaches the worm’s neurons and muscle cells, it destabilizes the normal flow of ions across the cells’ membranes, causing catastrophic failure.

For their latest paper, Dr. Hsueh and her colleagues used ultraviolet rays and a chemical that causes mutations on oyster mushrooms and looked for individuals whose touch did not kill worms. They found that all of these fungal mutants lacked small globes called toxocysts that hang like fruit from the hyphae. These, they reasoned, must be where the substance was kept.

But attempts to pinpoint the toxin by harvesting the toxocysts from non-mutant mushrooms failed, and the researchers only understood why when they found that physically disturbing the globes made them harmless to worms. The substance must be volatile — floating away in the air as soon as it is released.

A scanning electron microscopy image of toxocysts on an oyster mushroom.Yi-Yun Lee

Using a machine to analyze the air above disturbed toxocysts revealed a single molecule: 3-octanone. That was surprising, Dr. Hsueh said. 3-octanone is a relatively commonplace substance made by plants and fungi. It is also a common ingredient in fragrances and flavors. But applying the substance to worms made it clear 3-octanone had all the gruesome effects of a brush with an oyster mushroom. They had found their culprit.

Nematode worms have been known to destroy the roots of crops, and antiworm substances from nature have inspired drugs like ivermectin, the antiparasite medication that made headlines during the height of the pandemic. Because 3-octanone is volatile, it is unlikely it could be used as a pesticide against worms — it would just drift away. Furthermore, the oyster mushroom only goes to the trouble to make toxocysts when it is in a nitrogen-poor environment. So oyster mushrooms likely could not serve as a form of natural pesticide alongside crops slathered with nitrogen-rich fertilizers.

But perhaps, Dr. Hsueh said, understanding how the oyster mushroom came to use this substance as a toxin and what triggers the creation of toxocysts could open the door to a new kind of pest control. If oyster mushrooms could be made to arm themselves, even in the richness of a fertilized field, we might someday see their talents for destruction deployed on our behalf — and not just in the service of making themselves plumper and tastier for our plates.

#News

[alteredsilicone]

crawled to rank 5 in the circuit solo-mode to unlock dual toxocyst incarnon... time to farm mutagen masses to actually craft the weapon

[infestedslime]

Well I didn’t really think I’d be able to do it tonight, but I was able to get the last sister ephemera, meaning I now have all 14 nemesis ephemeras! It took me a total of 76 nemises (specifically 36 liches and 40 sisters) to get all the ephemeras. If you missed my last post I managed to get the last 3 sister ephemeras I needed tonight in the span of only 6 different sisters, which is much better luck than I’ve ever had before with this kind of thing. With that and the removal of lich/sister challenges from nightwave, I think I’m completely done with the nemesis system until they add more weapons or add a new kind entirely.

[warframememes]

Tags from @ivararara

Back when Peacemaker took mods from your secondary weapon, you could make this even faster by using Dual Toxocyst with its built in headshot buff.

You guys ever just make a stupid joke build for a frame and then it becomes the only way you play that frame?

[tenn-o-s]

Sleep Well Glass Warrior... I’ll miss you.

[xzeromusx]

Arbitrary Decisions Monday Special  1

Oberon and Dual Toxocyst

https://youtu.be/qck11D7nFH4