The amazing potential of fungi:50 ways we can exploit fungi industrially

Fungi are an understudied,biotechnologically valuable group of organisms.Due to the immense range of habitats that fungi inhabit,and the consequent need to compete against a diverse array of other fungi,bacteria,and animals,fungi have developed numerous survival mechanisms.The unique attributes of fungi thus herald great promise for their application in biotechnology and industry.Moreover,fungi can be grown with relative ease,making production at scale viable.The search for fungal biodiversity,and the construction of a living fungi collection,both have incredible economic potential in locating organisms with novel industrial uses that will lead to novel products.This manuscript reviews fifty ways in which fungi can potentially be utilized as biotechnology.We provide notes and examples for each potential exploitation and give examples from our own work and the work of other notable researchers.We also provide a flow chart that can be used to convince funding bodies of the importance of fungi for biotechnological research and as potential products.Fungi have provided the world with penicillin,lovastatin,and other globally significant medicines,and they remain an untapped resource with enormous industrial potential.

Fungal diversity notes 1512–1610: taxonomic and phylogenetic contributions on genera and species of fungal taxa

This article is the 14th in the Fungal Diversity Notes series,wherein we report 98 taxa distributed in two phyla,seven classes,26 orders and 50 families which are described and illustrated.Taxa in this study were collected from Australia,Brazil,Burkina Faso,Chile,China,Cyprus,Egypt,France,French Guiana,India,Indonesia,Italy,Laos,Mexico,Russia,Sri Lanka,Thailand,and Vietnam.There are 59 new taxa,39 new hosts and new geographical distributions with one new combination.The 59 new species comprise Angustimassarina kunmingense,Asterina lopi,Asterina brigadeirensis,Bartalinia bidenticola,Bartalinia caryotae,Buellia pruinocalcarea,Coltricia insularis,Colletotrichum fexuosum,Colletotrichum thasutense,Coniochaeta caraganae,Coniothyrium yuccicola,Dematipyriforma aquatic,Dematipyriforma globispora,Dematipyriforma nilotica,Distoseptispora bambusicola,Fulvifomes jawadhuvensis,Fulvifomes malaiyanurensis,Fulvifomes thiruvannamalaiensis,Fusarium purpurea,Gerronema atrovirens,Gerronema favum,Gerronema keralense,Gerronema kuruvense,Grammothele taiwanensis,Hongkongmyces changchunensis,Hypoxylon inaequale,Kirschsteiniothelia acutisporum,Kirschsteiniothelia crustaceum,Kirschsteiniothelia extensum,Kirschsteiniothelia septemseptatum,Kirschsteiniothelia spatiosum,Lecanora immersocalcarea,Lepiota subthailandica,Lindgomyces guizhouensis,Marthe asmius pallidoaurantiacus,Marasmius tangerinus,Neovaginatispora mangiferae,Pararamichloridium aquisubtropicum,Pestalotiopsis piraubensis,Phacidium chinaum,Phaeoisaria goiasensis,Phaeoseptum thailandicum,Pleurothecium aquisubtropicum,Pseudocercospora vernoniae,Pyrenophora verruculosa,Rhachomyces cruralis,Rhachomyces hyperommae,Rhachomyces magrinii,Rhachomyces platyprosophi,Rhizomarasmius cunninghamietorum,Skeletocutis cangshanensis,Skeletocutis subchrysella,Sporisorium anadelphiae-leptocomae,Tetraploa dashaoensis,Tomentella exiguelata,Tomentella fuscoaraneosa,Tricholomopsis lechatii,Vaginatispora favispora and Wetmoreana blastidiocalcarea.The new combination is Torula sundara.The 39 new records on hosts and geographical distribution comprise Apiospora guiyangensis,Aplosporella artocarpi,Ascochyta medicaginicola,Astrocystis bambusicola,Athelia rolfsii,Bambusicola bambusae,Bipolaris luttrellii,Botryosphaeria dothidea,Chlorophyllum squamulosum,Colletotrichum aeschynomenes,Colletotrichum pandanicola,Coprinopsis cinerea,Corylicola italica,Curvularia alcornii,Curvularia senegalensis,Diaporthe foeniculina,Diaporthe longicolla,Diaporthe phaseolorum,Diatrypella quercina,Fusarium brachygibbosum,Helicoma aquaticum,Lepiota metulispora,Lepiota pongduadensis,Lepiota subvenenata,Melanconiella meridionalis,Monotosporella erecta,Nodulosphaeria digitalis,Palmiascoma gregariascomum,Periconia byssoides,Periconia cortaderiae,Pleopunctum ellipsoideum,Psilocybe keralensis,Scedosporium apiospermum,Scedosporium dehoogii,Scedosporium marina,Spegazzinia deightonii,Torula fci,Wiesneriomyces laurinus and Xylaria venosula.All these taxa are supported by morphological and multigene phylogenetic analyses.This article allows the researchers to publish fungal collections which areimportant for future studies.An updated,accurate and timely report of fungus-host and fungus-geography is important.We also provide an updated list of fungal taxa published in the previous fungal diversity notes.In this list,erroneous taxa and synonyms are marked and corrected accordingly.

What is a species in fungal plant pathogens?

Scientific names are crucial for communicating knowledge concerning fungi and fungus-like organisms.In plant pathology,they link information regarding biology,host range,distribution and potential risk to agriculture and food security.In the past,delimitation among pathogenic taxa was primarily based on morphological characteristics.Due to distinct species sharing overlapping characteristics,the morphological identification of species is often neither straightforward nor reliable.Hence,the phylogenetic species concept based on molecular phylogenetic reconstructions gained importance.The present opinion discusses what a fungal species is and how identification of species in plant pathology has changed over the past decades.In this context,host-specialization and species complexes are discussed.Furthermore,species concepts in plant pathology are examined using case studies from Bipolaris,Colletotrichum,Curvularia,Diaporthe,Diplodia,Meliola,Plasmopara,rust fungi and Trichoderma.Each entry contains a brief introduction to the genus,concepts used in species identification so far and the problems in describing a species followed by recommendations.The importance of correctly naming and identifying a species is addressed in the context of recent introductions,and we also discuss whether the introduction of new species in pathogenic genera has been overestimated.We also provide guidelines to be considered when introducing a new species in a plant pathogenic genus.