Fungal Tissue as a Medium for Electrical Signal Transmission: A Baseline Assessment With Melanized Fungus <i>Curvularia Lunata</i>

Fungal tissues are an underexplored medium for data and electrical signal transmission. Fungal tissues are a biodegradable material that can be cultivated in mass quantities; potentially making them sustainable materials for biological sensors or as a communication medium. Because the interactions of fungal tissues with communications signals are not thoroughly explored, a baseline assessment of the signal transmission capabilities of mat forming filamentous fungus, <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Curvularia lunata</i> (<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">C. lunata</i>) was performed. In this paper, the band-pass characteristics of <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">C. lunata</i> were assessed through a frequency sweep from 1 Hz–5 MHz. The potential data transmission rates through a raw bit error rate analysis using a pseudorandom bit sequence between 1–1,000 kbps were evaluated. The passband for the tissue was between 1–500 kHz, characterizing it as a low-pass filter. Bit streams below 10 kbps had an error rate of <10% however, the error rate rose rapid at higher rates peaking at ∼86% at rates >500 kbps. The results suggest that this fungal tissue could serve as a low-speed data transmission medium specifically for low-pass signals related to general human health such as ECG, EEG, EMG signals as well as temperature and glucose monitoring. While more research is necessary to understand the morphological and species-specific impacts on signal propagation between different fungi, tissues from the fungus <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">C. lunata</i> and those with similar properties could potentially serve as a component in low-frequency biosensors and signal transmission.