List of bioluminescent fungi

This list of bioluminscent fungi has more than 125 known species found largely in temperate and tropical climates.^[1] They are members of the order Agaricales (Basidiomycota) with one possible exceptional ascomycete belonging to the order Xylariales^[2] (with extremely faint light).^[a] All known bioluminescent Agaricales are mushroom-forming, white-spored agarics that belong to four distinct evolutionary lineages. The Omphalotus lineage (comprising the genera Omphalotus and Neonothopanus) contains 12 species, the Armillaria lineage has 10 known species, while the Mycenoid lineage (Favolachia, Mycena, Panellus, Prunulus, Roridomyces) has more than 50 species. The recently discovered Lucentipes lineage contains two species, Mycena lucentipes and Gerronema viridilucens, which belong to a family that has not yet been formally named.^[5] Armillaria mellea is the most widely distributed of the luminescent fungi, found across Asia, Europe, North America, and South Africa.^[6]

Bioluminescent Mycena roseoflava

Panellus stipticus is among about 125 known species of bioluminescent fungi.

The newly discovered Eoscyphella lineage, represented by Eoscyphella luciurceolata from the Atlantic Rainforest in southern Brazil, marks a significant expansion in understanding of fungal bioluminescence.^[7]

Bioluminescent fungi emit a greenish light at a wavelength of 520–530 nm. The light emission is continuous and occurs only in living cells.^[8] No correlation of fungal bioluminescence with cell structure has been found. Bioluminescence may occur in both mycelia and fruit bodies, as in Panellus stipticus and Omphalotus olearius, or only in mycelia and young rhizomorphs, as in Armillaria mellea.^[9] In Roridomyces roridus luminescence occurs only in the spores, while in Collybia tuberosa, it is only in the sclerotia.^[10]

Although the biochemistry of fungal bioluminescence has not fully been characterized, the preparation of bioluminescent, cell-free extracts has allowed researchers to characterize the in vitro requirements of fungal bioluminescence. Experimental data suggest that a two-stage mechanism is required. In the first, a light-emitting substance (called "luciferin") is reduced by a soluble reductase enzyme at the expense of NAD(P)H. In the second stage, reduced luciferin is oxidized by an insoluble luciferase that releases the energy in the form of bluish-green light. Conditions that affect the growth of fungi, such as pH, light and temperature, have been found to influence bioluminescence, suggesting a link between metabolic activity and fungal bioluminescence.^[10]

All bioluminescent fungi share the same enzymatic mechanism, suggesting that there is a bioluminescent pathway that arose early in the evolution of the mushroom-forming Agaricales.^[5] All known luminescent species are white rot fungi capable of breaking down lignin, found in abundance in wood. Bioluminescence is an oxygen-dependent metabolic process and therefore may provide antioxidant protection against the potentially damaging effects of reactive oxygen species produced during wood decay.

The physiological and ecological function of fungal bioluminescence has not been established with certainty. It has been suggested that in the dark beneath closed tropical forest canopies, bioluminescent fruit bodies may be at an advantage by attracting grazing animals (including insects and other arthropods) that could help disperse their spores. Conversely, where mycelium (and vegetative structures like rhizomorphs and sclerotia) are the bioluminescent tissues, the argument has been made that light emission could deter grazing.^[10]

The following list of bioluminescent mushrooms is based on a 2008 literature survey by Dennis Desjardin and colleagues,^[11] in addition to accounts of several new species published since then.^{[12][13][14][15]}

Species

Binomial	Luminescence		Distribution	References
	Mycelium	Fruit body
Armillaria calvescens Bérubé & Dessur.	Yes	?	Eastern NA	[16]
Armillaria cepistipes Velen.	Yes	?	NA, Eurasia	[16]
Armillaria fuscipes Petch	Yes	No	Malaysia, Africa	[9][17][18]
Armillaria gallica Marxm. & Romagn.	Yes	No	EU, NA, Africa, Japan	[19]
Armillaria gemina Bérubé & Dessur.	Yes	?	Eastern NA	[16]
Armillaria limonea (G.Stev.) Boesew.	No	Yes	Australasia, SA	[20]
Armillaria mellea (Valh.) P.Kumm.	Yes	No	Eurasia, NA	[19][21]
Armillaria nabsnona T.J. Volk & Burds.	Yes	?	Western NA, Asia	[16]
Armillaria novae-zelandiae (G.Stev.) Boesew.	No	Yes	NZ, Australia, New Guinea, SA	[20]
Armillaria ostoyae (Romagn.) Henrik	Yes	No	EU, NA	[22]
Armillaria sinapina Bérubé & Dessur.	Yes	?	NA, Asia	[16]
Armillaria tabescens (Scop.) Emel	Yes	No	EU, NA	[19]
Collybia tuberosa (Bull.) P. Kumm	No	Only sclerotia	EU, NA, Lithuania	[23][24]
Cruentomycena orientalis Har. Takah., Taneyama & Hadano	Yes	Yes	Japan, Taiwan	[25]
Desarmillaria ectypa (Fr.) R.A. Koch & Aime	Yes	Yes (gills)	EU	[26]
Dictyopanus foliicolus Kobayasi[b]	Yes	Yes	Japan	[28][29]
Eoscyphella luciurceolata Silva-Filho, Stevani & Desjardin	No	Yes	Brazil	[7]
Favolaschia manipularis (Berk.) Teng[c]	?	Yes	Malaysia, Pacific islands	[31][32]
Favolaschia tonkinensis (Pat.) Kuntze, 1898	No	Yes	Eastern India, China (Yunnan)	[33]
Filoboletus hanedae (as 'hanedai′) Kobayasi[d]	?	Yes	Japan	[28]
Filoboletus pallescens (Boedijn) Maas Geest.	?	Yes	Malaysia, Indonesia (Krakatoa)	[35]
Favolaschia peziziformis (Berk. & M.A.Curtis) Sacc.	?	Yes	Japan	[36]
Filoboletus yunnanensis P.G.Liu	?	Yes	China	[35]
Gerronema viridilucens Desjardin, Capelari & Stevani	Yes	Yes	SA	[37]
Marasmiellus venosus Har. Takah., Taneyama & Hadano	No	Yes	Japan	[38][failed verification]
Mycena aspratilis Maas Geest. & de Meijer	?	Yes (Hymenophore)	SA	[12]
Mycena asterina Desjardin, Capelari & Stevani	Yes	Yes	SA	[39]
Mycena cahaya A.L.C.Chew & Desjardin	Yes	Yes	Malaysia	[40]
Mycena citricolor (Berk. & M.A.Curtis) Sacc.	Yes	No	SA, CA, Jamaica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Puerto Rico	[18][41]
Mycena chlorophos (Berk. & M.A.Curtis) Sacc.	Yes	Yes	Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Pacific Islands	[32]
Mycena cristinae J.S. Oliveira	Yes	Yes	Brazil
Mycena crocata (Schrad.) P. Kumm.	Yes	No	Europe	[42][43]
Mycena coralliformis A.L.C. Chew & Desjardin	Yes	?	Malaysia	[31]
Mycena daisyogunensis Kobayasi	?	Yes	Japan	[28]
Mycena deeptha Aravind. & Manim.	Yes	No	India, Malaysia	[14]
Mycena deformis Maas Geest. & de Meijer	Yes	No	Brazil	[44]
Mycena deusta Maas Geest. & de Meijer	?	Yes	Brazil	[45]
Mycena discobasis Metrod	?	Yes	SA, AF	[39]
Mycena sp. "Erua (PDD 80772)"	Yes	Yes	NZ	[46][47]
Mycena epipterygia (Scop.: Fr.) S.F.Gray	Yes	No	EU, NA, Japan	[44]
Mycena fera Maas Geest. & de Meijer	?	Yes	SA	[39]
Mycena flammifera Har. Takah. & Taneyama	?	Yes	Japan	[48]
Mycena fulgoris Cortés-Pérez, Desjardin	No	Yes (stipe)	Mexico	[49]
Mycena fusca Cleland	?	?	South Australia	[50]
Mycena galopus (Pers.: Fr.) P.Kumm.	Yes	No	EU, NA, Japan	[18][42][44][51]
Mycena globulispora Maas Geest. & de Meijer	Yes	Yes (basidiomes)	Brazil	[52]
Mycena gombakensis A.L.C. Chew & Desjardin	Yes	Yes	Malaysia	[31]
Mycena guzmanii Cortés-Pérez, Desjardin	Yes	Yes	Mexico	[49]
Mycena haematopus (Pers.: Fr.) P.Kumm.	Yes	Yes	EU, NA, Japan	[42][51][53]
Mycena illuminans Henn.	Yes	Yes	Malaysia, Japan	[31][32][54][55]
Mycena inclinata (Fr.) Quél.	Yes	No	EU, NA, AF	[17]
Mycena jingyinga C.C. Chang, C.Y. Chen, W.W. Lin & H.W. Kao	Yes	No	Taiwan	[56]
Mycena kentingensis Y.S. Shih, C.Y. Chen, W.W. Lin & H.W. Kao	?	Yes	Taiwan	[15]
Mycena lacrimans Singer	?	Yes	SA (Brazil)	[39]
Mycena lazulina Har. Takah., Taneyama, Terashima & Oba	?	Yes	Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Australia	[57]
Mycena lucentipes Desjardin, Capelari & Stevani	Yes	Yes	SA, CA	[39]
Mycena luguensis C.C. Chang, C.Y. Chen, W.W. Lin & H.W. Kao	Yes	No	Taiwan	[56]
Mycena lumina Cortés-Pérez, Desjardin	No	Yes	Mexico	[49]
Mycena lux-coeli Corner	?	Yes	Japan	[32]
Mycena luxaeterna B.A.Perry & Desjardin	Yes	Yes	SA	[12]
Mycena luxarboricola B.A.Perry & Desjardin	No	Yes	SA	[12]
Mycena luxfoliata [ceb] Har. Takah., Taneyama & Terashima	Yes	No	Japan	[52]
Mycena luxfoliicola Cortés-Pérez, Desjardin & Ram.-Cruz	Yes	Yes	Mexico	[49]
Mycena luxperpetua B.A. Perry & Desjardin	Yes	Yes	Puerto Rico	[12]
Mycena maculata P.Karst.	Yes	?	EU, NA, AF	[51]
Mycena margarita (Murrill) Murrill	?	Yes (yellowish green light in all parts of the basidiome, or nonluminescent in some populations)	Caribbean - Florida (USA), Belize, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Venezuela, Brazil	[58][12]
Mycena nebula Cortés-Pérez, Desjardin & Rockefeller	No	Yes	Mexico	[49]
Mycena nocticaelum A.L.C. Chew & Desjardin	Yes	Yes	Malaysia	[31]
Mycena noctilucens Kawam. ex Corner[e]	?	Yes	Malaysia, Pacific islands, South Solomons	[32][55]
Mycena olivaceomarginata (Massee apud Cooke) Massee	Yes	No	EU, NA	[17]
Mycena oculisnymphae Desjardin, B.A. Perry & Stevanir	?	Yes (basidiome)	Brazil	[52]
Mycena perlae Cortés-Pérez, Desjardin & Rockefeller	No	Yes	Mexico	[49]
Mycena polygramma (Bull.: Fr.) S.F.Gray	Yes	No	AF, EU, NA, Japan	[18][44][51]
Mycena pruinosoviscida Corner[f]	?	Yes (and spores)	AU, Malaysia, Japan (Hachijō-jima)	[32][55]
Mycena pseudostylobates Kobayasi	Yes	?	Japan	[28]
Mycena pura (Pers.: Fr.) P.Kumm.	Yes	No	EU, NA, SA, Japan	[51]
Mycena rosea (Bull.) Gramberg	Yes	No	EU	[51]
Mycena roseoflava (G.Stev.)	Yes	Yes	NZ	[20]
Mycena sanguinolenta (Alb. & Schwein.: Fr.) P.Kumm.	Yes	No	EU, NA, Japan	[42][44]
Mycena seminau A.L.C.Chew & Desjardin	Yes	Yes	Malaysia	[40]
Mycena silvaelucens B.A.Perry & Desjardin	?	Yes (pileus, lamellae, stipe)	Malaysia	[12]
Mycena sinar A.L.C.Chew & Desjardin	Yes	Yes	Malaysia	[40]
Mycena sinar var. tangkaisinar A.L.C.Chew & Desjardin	?	Yes	Malaysia	[31]
Mycena singeri Lodge	?	Yes	SA, CA	[39]
Mycena stellaris Har.Takah., Taneyama & Hadano	?	Yes	Taiwan	[60]
Mycena stylobates (Pers.: Fr.) P.Kumm.	Yes	No	AF, EU, NA, Japan	[42][44]
Mycena sublucens Corner	No	Yes	Malaysia	[32]
Mycena tintinnabulum (Fr.) Quél.	Yes	No	EU	[61]
Mycena venus C.C. Chang, C.Y. Chen, W.W. Lin & H.W. Kao	Yes	No	Taiwan	[56]
Mycena vinacea Cleland	?	Yes (basidiomes)	AU, NZ	[20]
Mycena zephirus (Fr.: Fr.) P.Kumm.	Yes	No	EU	[44][51]
Neonothopanus gardneri (Berk. ex Gardner) Capelari, Desjardin, Perry, Asai & Stevani	Yes	Yes	SA	[13][62]
Neonothopanus nambi (Speg.) Petersen & Krisai-Greilhuber	Yes	Yes	AU, SA, CA, Malaysia	[31][63]
Nothopanus eugrammus (Mont.) Singer[g]	No	Yes	Japan, Malaysia, Singapore	[63]
Nothopanus noctilucens (Lév.) Singer	?	Yes	Japan	[65][66]
Omphalotus flagelliformis Zhu L. Yang & B. Feng	Yes	Yes	China	[67]
Omphalotus illudens (Schwein.) Bresinsky & Besl.	Yes	Yes	EU, NA	[9][17][18]
Omphalotus japonicus (Kawam.) Kirchm. & O.K.Mill.[h]	Yes	Yes	China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan	[53][69][70][71]
Omphalotus mangensis (J.Li & X.Hu) Kirchm. & O.K.Mill.	?	Yes	China	[72]
Omphalotus nidiformis (Berk.) O.K.Mill.	?	Yes	AU	[73][74]
Omphalotus olearius (DC.: Fr.) Singer	Yes	Yes	EU, US	[17]
Omphalotus olivascens H.E.Bigelow, O.K.Mill. & Thiers	No	Yes	NA	[75]
Omphalotus subilludens (Murrill) H.E.Bigelow	Yes	Yes	US	[76]
Panellus luminescens (Corner) Corner	Yes	Yes	Malaysia	[31][77][78]
Panellus luxfilamentus A.L.C. Chew & Desjardin	Yes	?	Malaysia	[31]
Panellus pusillus (Pers. ex Lév.) Burdsall & O.K.Mill.[i]	Yes	Yes	AF, AU, NA, SA, Malaysia, Japan	[29][32][66][78][80]
Panellus stipticus (Bull.: Fr.) P.Karst.	Yes	Yes	AU, AF, EU, NA, SA, Japan	[18][81][21]
Pleurotus decipiens Corner	?	Yes	Malaysia	[63]
Resinomycena petarensis Desjardin, B.A. Perry & Stevani	Yes	No	Brazil	[52]
Roridomyces irritans (E.Horak) Rexer	No	Yes	AU	[82]
Roridomyces phyllostachydis Karun., Mortimer and Axford	No	Yes	India	[83]
Roridomyces pruinosoviscidus A.L.C. Chew & Desjardin	Yes	Yes	Malaysia, Bismark Archipelago	[31]
Roridomyces lamprosporus (Corner) Rexer[j]	No	Yes (spores)	Malaysia, AU	[55][77][82]
Roridomyces roridus (Fr.) Rexer[k]	Yes	No	EU, NA, SA, Japan	[87]
Roridomyces sublucens Corner	No	Yes (stipe and gills)	Amboina (Indonesia)	[88]
Roridomyces viridiluminus L.A.P. Dauner, Karunarathna & P.E. Mortimer	Yes	Yes	China (Yunnan)	[88]
Tricholoma sciodes (Pers.) C. Martín	Yes	No	Lithuania	[24]
Xylaria hypoxylon (L.) Grev.	?	Allegedly (?)[a]	EU	[89][21]

See also

• List of bioluminescent organisms

Notes

1. Some sources identify xylaria hypoxylon with extremely faint light.^[3][4]
2. Apparently it is the same species as given in Index Fungorum with a current name as Dictyopanus foliicola Kobayasi.^[27]
3. This species is given in Audrey et al. (2015) as Filoboletus manipularis and in Corner (1954) as Mycena manipularis var. microporus, but Index Fungorum indicates that Favolaschia manipularis is the current name.^[30]
4. This species is given in Kobayasi (1951) as Poromycena hanedae (as ′hanedai′) but Index Fungorum indicates that Filoboletus hanedae (as ′hanedai′) is the current name.^[34]
5. This species is presumably given in Corner (1994) as Mycena Noctilucens var. magnispora but Index Fungorum indicates that Mycena Noctilucens is the current name.
6. This species is given in Corner (1954) and presumably in Corner (1994) as Mycena pruinoso-viscida and Mycena pruinoso-viscida var. rabaulensis but Index Fungorum indicates that Mycena pruinosoviscida is the current name.^[59]
7. This species is given in Corner (1981) as Pleurotus eugrammus var. radicicolus, but Index Fungorum indicates that Nothopanus eugrammus is the current name.^[64]
8. This species is given in Zang (1979) as Lampteromyces luminescens, but Index Fungorum indicates that Omphalotus japonicus is the current name.^[68]
9. This species is given in Corner (1954) as Dictyopanus pusillus var. sublamellatus and in Kobayasi (1963), Corner (1954), Corner (1986) as Panellus gloeocystidiatus but Index Fungorum indicates that Panellus pusillus is the current name.^[79]
10. This species is given in Corner (1994), Corner (1950), Horak (1978) as Mycena lamprospora, but Index Fungorum indicates that Roridomyces lamprosporus is the current name.^[84]
11. This species is given in Desjardin et al. (2008) as Mycena rorida, but both Index Fungorum and MycoBank indicate that Roridomyces roridus is the current name.^[85][86]