How extraordinary a scientific miracle can a discarded rotten apple create? Two years ago, a wild fungus accidentally discovered by a netizen in east China's Zhejiang Province traveled over 2,000 kilometers to a research laboratory. After eight generations of selective breeding and crossbreeding with space-bred fungal strains, the eighth-generation "king fruit mushroom" has finally debuted. It has transformed from an accidental fungal growth into a premium table delicacy, presenting a heartwarming story of public-participated scientific research.

The story dates back to the rain season in southern China in 2024. Deng Lixing, a resident in Deqing, Zhejiang, spotted a uniquely shaped white fungus growing on a rotten apple at home. She snapped a casual photo and posted it on social media. Thousands of kilometers away, Xu Rongju, a PhD candidate at the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, came across the post. He instantly identified the organism as Schizophyllum commune, an edible and medicinal fungus locally known as "white ginseng mushroom" in Yunnan. Notably, its growth on an apple is an extremely rare phenomenon worldwide.

Normally, Schizophyllum commune feeds on lignin. To survive on an apple, one male and one female spore must land precisely on the apple's core or stalk, complete successful mating and eventually germinate into a fruiting body – a chance as slim as winning the lottery. Driven by acute scientific intuition, Xu immediately contacted the netizen to request the sample. Deng generously delivered the apple via cold-chain logistics free of charge, and the one-of-a-kind sample arrived safely at the Kunming laboratory after a cross-country journey.

After on-site inspection and analysis, the research team confirmed the rare wild strain. The "mushroom growing on apple" story quickly went viral, topping social media trending lists for three consecutive days. Netizens proposed dozens of names, with king fruit mushroom being eventually chosen. This naturally gifted strain became a breakthrough for the team's two-decade-long research bottleneck. Previously, the team had successfully cultivated Schizophyllum commune using traditional Chinese medicine residues, yet its coarse texture, excessive spore dispersal and difficulties in standardized large-scale planting blocked its commercial promotion nationwide.

Equipped with the rare wild strain, the team launched targeted breeding improvement. However, the first-generation produce disappointed researchers with an even rougher taste than commercially available varieties. The team then adopted a space cross-breeding strategy, utilizing premium mutated Schizophyllum commune strains carried by the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft. Genetic variations induced by the extreme space environment combined with the superior genes of the apple-origin wild strain, triggering a fantastic genetic recombination.

After rounds of selective domestication across generations, the research bore fruit. In February 2025, the eighth-generation king fruit mushroom was successfully developed, solving all core defects of early breeds. It barely produces spores, boasts a crisp and sweet taste, and has a greatly shortened growth cycle of merely 15 to 20 days, making it perfectly adaptable to large-scale greenhouse cultivation. Earlier, this phenomenal scientific story won the Science Event Award at the 2024 Pineapple Science Awards, where the discoverer and the research team met in person and received the award together.

Currently, the eighth-generation king fruit mushroom has achieved successful trial planting in greenhouses in Yunnan and entered small-scale commercial sales. The research team also plans to send the strain into space again for comparative experiments to further explore its genetic potential. Beyond technological breakthroughs, the viral event has pioneered an innovative scientific research model. Enthusiastic netizens across China have voluntarily sent various wild fungal samples to the laboratory, forming a new "public discovery and academic identification" research model. Social media has thus become a form of a second field laboratory for researchers.

From a discarded rotten apple to a popular high-quality table mushroom, this spontaneous gift from nature and mutually beneficial public-science collaboration endows tiny microbial life with extraordinary value. The evolution of the king fruit mushroom is far from over. The team will continue to breed more stable strains, launching the 9th and 10th generations successively to unlock greater potential for agricultural scientific research.