Neonothopanus_nambi
Neonothopanus nambi
Species of fungus
Neonothopanus nambi is a poisonous and bioluminescent mushroom in the family Marasmiaceae.[1][2] The genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying this species' bioluminescence were published in 2019, the first to be elucidated for a fungus.[3] In 2020, genes from this fungus were used to create bioluminescent tobacco plants.[4]
Italian-Argentinian naturalist Carlo Luigi Spegazzini described the species in 1883 as Agaricus nambí in the subgenus Pleurotus, from material collected in December 1879 near Guarapí,[5] a locality in Yaguarón, Paraguarí Department, Paraguay.[6] Pier Andrea Saccardo placed it in the genus Pleurotus.[7] Ronald H. Petersen and Irmgard Krisai placed the fungus in the new genus Neonothopanus in 1999.[8]