fungoid is common???

[TRex]

I don't think so. What do others think?

[ridethetalk]

When you get it as an infection between the toes, it is all too common... 

[Calilasseia]

Even with my background in scientific literature, this isn't a term I recall encountering often. Fungal is a different matter of course, one that's almost certainly familiar to many here. Can't even think immediately of a scientific context in which I would encounter fungoid, unless I delved into the wilder prairies of the protist literature, where all manner of single celled weirdness can drop up.

For those who, as a tangential diversion, want at least one example of said weirdness, try Warnowiids. These are single celled plants (related to dinoflagellate red algae), but, wait for it, have eyes. Not just simple eye spots either, but eyes possessing internal structure, in some cases considered to be comparable in sophistication to some vertebrate eyes. But the eyes in question aren't connected to a brain, because brains are entities that only multicellular organisms possess.

So, for all I know, someone has discovered some weird protist with some fungal features, and used the term 'fungoid' to describe it. But if so, it'll be completely new to me, and the resulting biological chimaera will likely end up inspiring some future Alien style horror science fiction.

I'm now inspired to go trawling the literature just in case someone has actually found such a micro-beast ...

[Jacki]

I did not find fungoid but that being said I have definitely heard of it. Well done those that did! Common? That’s another thing.

[Calilasseia]

Heh, wouldn't you know it, one has been hiding in plain sight all along before me!

There's a nasty disease called "Neon Tetra Disease", that affects these fish, and its caused by a single celled (and free swimming) aquatic fungus called Pleistophora hyphessobryconis, one of the Microsporidians.

If this attacks your Neon Tetras, they're dead. No cure yet exists, and the disease destroys the fish from the inside out in about 2 to 3 weeks. Lingering, painful death for the fish. Humane euthanising is the only option.

Thanks to molecular phylogeny, there's been a big upheaval in the world of protists, which now includes organisms that you wouldn't think of as being closely related at first sight. But, apparently, the closest relative to some single celled brown algae is Kelp, which grows to be anything up to 500 feet in length!

There's some weird organisms been regrouped as fungi as well. The curious will find much hilarity awaits.

[Alan W]

It seems that fungal is used hundreds of time more frequently than fungoid - More than a thousand times as often according to the News on the Web corpus. The meanings of the two words overlap substantially, although I have a feeling that fungoid may have more of a sense of resembling a fungus in appearance, rather than actually related to a fungus.

In any case, I'll make fungoid rare from now on.

[Maudland]

I missed this discussion, but that seems like a good call, Alan!

[TRex]

Thanks, Alan