c S

 


 S




The human use of fungi for food preparation or preservation and other purposes is extensive and
has a long history. Mushroom farming and mushroom gathering are large industries in many
countries. The study of the historical uses and sociological impact of fungi is known as
ethnomycology. Because of the capacity of this group to produce an enormous range of natural
products with antimicrobial or other biological activities, many species have long been used or
are being developed for industrial production of antibiotics, vitamins, and anti-cancer and
cholesterol-lowering drugs. More recently, methods have been developed for genetic engineering
of fungi,[163] enabling metabolic engineering of fungal species. For example, genetic
modification of yeast species[164]²which are easy to grow at fast rates in large fermentation
vessels²has opened up ways of pharmaceutical production that are potentially more efficient
than production by the original source organisms.[165]

è

Fungi, together with bacteria, are responsible for
most of the recycling which returns dead material to the
soil in a form in which it can be reused. Without fungi,
these recycling activities would be seriously reduced. We
would effectively be lost under piles many metres thick,
of dead plant and animal remains.

è 
    

Fungi are vitally important for the good growth of
most plants, including crops, through the development of
mycorrhizal associations. As plants are at the base of
most food chains, if their growth was limited, all animal
life, including human, would be seriously reduced through
starvation.

è 

* Food Spoilage
It has already been noted that fungi play a major
role in recycling organic material. The fungi which make
our bread and jam go mouldy are only recycling organic
matter,even though in this case, we would prefer that it
didn't happen! Fungal damage can be responsible for large
losses of stored food, particularly food which contains
any moisture. Dry grains can usually be stored
successfully, but the minute they become damp, moulds are
likely to render them inedible. This is obviously a
problem where large quantities of food are being produced
seasonally and then require storage until they are needed
Fungi influence our life in many ways. The parasitic
forms cause serious diseases in crop plants and have been
brought about important changes in the history of some
countries
In bread baking Saccharmyces cerevisiae is responsible
for alcoholic fermentation by which alcohol and C02 forms
is evaporated and the bread shows uniform spongy texture.

PROCESSING OF FOOD:
Baker's yeast or -

 


 , a single-celled fungus, is used to make bread and
other wheat-based products, such as pizza dough and dumplings.[171] Yeast species of the genus
-

 
 are also used to produce alcoholic beverages through fermentation.[172] Shoyu
koji mold (   ) is an essential ingredient in brewing Shoyu (soy sauce) and sake,
and the preparation of miso,[173] while   species are used for making tempeh.[174] Several
of these fungi are domesticated species that were bred or selected according to their capacity to
ferment food without producing harmful mycotoxins (see below), which are produced by very
closely related  .[175] Quorn, a meat substitute, is made from  
 
¦REWING AND ¦AKING INDUSTRY:

FUNGI AS FOOD:
Sdible mushrooms are well-known examples of fungi. Many are commercially raised, but others
must be harvested from the wild.  
  , sold as button mushrooms when small or
Portobello mushrooms when larger, is a commonly eaten species, used in salads, soups, and
many other dishes. Many Asian fungi are commercially grown and have increased in popularity
in the West. They are often available fresh in grocery stores and markets, including straw
mushrooms (



 ), oyster mushrooms (  ), shiitakes (
), and enokitake (  spp.).[187]

There are many more mushroom species that are harvested from the wild for personal
consumption or commercial sale. Milk mushrooms, morels, chanterelles, truffles, black trumpets,
and 
 mushrooms ( ) (also known as king boletes) demand a high price on the
market. They are often used in gourmet dishes.[188]
è
  
Fungal parasites may be useful in biocontrol, but
they can also have enormous negative consequences for
crop production. Some fungi are parasites of plants. Most
of our common crop plants are susceptible to fungal
attack of one kind or another. Spore production and
dispersal is enormously efficient in fungi and plants of
the same species crowded together in fields are ripe for
attack. Fungal diseases can on occasion result in the
loss of entire crops if they are not treated with
antifungal agents.

Æn agriculture, fungi may be useful if they actively compete for nutrients and space with
pathogenic microorganisms such as bacteria or other fungi via the competitive exclusion
principle,[198] or if they are parasites of these pathogens. For example, certain species may be
used to eliminate or suppress the growth of harmful plant pathogens, such as insects, mites,
weeds, nematodes and other fungi that cause diseases of important crop plants.[199] This has
generated strong interest in practical applications that use these fungi in the biological control of
these agricultural pests. Sntomopathogenic fungi can be used as biopesticides, as they actively
kill insects.[200] Sxamples that have been used as biological insecticides are  
    ,
  spp,  spp,  

 (  ) spp, and 

 
.[201][202]
Sndophytic fungi of grasses of the genus  , such as 
  , produce
alkaloids that are toxic to a range of invertebrate and vertebrate herbivores. These alkaloids
protect grass plants from herbivory, but several endophyte alkaloids can poison grazing animals,
such as cattle and sheep.[203] Ænfecting cultivars of pasture or forage grasses with  
endophytes is one approach being used in grass breeding programs; the fungal strains are
selected for producing only alkaloids that increase resistance to herbivores such as insects, while
being non-toxic to livestock.
*Fungi such as the Chinese caterpillar fungus, which
parasitise insects, can be extremely useful for controlling
insect pests of crops. The spores of the fungi are sprayed on
the crop pests. Fungi have been used to control Colorado potato
beetles, which can devastate potato crops. Spittlebugs, leaf
hoppers and citrus rust mites are some of the other insect pests
which have been controlled using fungi. This method is generally
cheaper and less damaging to the environment than using chemical
pesticides.

è  
Fungi can also parasitise domestic animals causing
diseases, but this is not usually a major economic
problem. a wide range of fungi also live on and in
humans, but most coexist harmlessly. Athletes foot and
Candida infections are examples of human fungal
infections.

è 

Many species produce metabolites that are major sources of pharmacologically active
drugs. Particularly important are the antibiotics, including the penicillins, a structurally related
group of ȕ-lactam antibiotics that are synthesized from small peptides. Although naturally
occurring penicillins such as penicillin G (produced by 

) have a
relatively narrow spectrum of biological activity, a wide range of other penicillins can be
produced by chemical modification of the natural penicillins. Modern penicillins are
semisynthetic compounds, obtained initially from fermentation cultures, but then structurally
altered for specific desirable properties.[166] Other antibiotics produced by fungi include:
ciclosporin, commonly used as an immunosuppressant during transplant surgery; and fusidic
acid, used to help control infection from methicillin-resistant - 


  bacteria.[167]
Widespread use of these antibiotics for the treatment of bacterial diseases, such as tuberculosis,
syphilis, leprosy, and many others began in the early 20th century and continues to play a major
part in anti-bacterial chemotherapy. Æn nature, antibiotics of fungal or bacterial origin appear to
play a dual role: at high concentrations they act as chemical defense against competition with
other microorganisms in species-rich environments, such as the rhizosphere, and at low
concentrations as quorum-sensing molecules for intra- or interspecies signaling.[168]

Other drugs produced by fungi include griseofulvin isolated from 
 !
, used
to treat fungal infections,[169] and statins (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors), used to inhibit
cholesterol synthesis. Sxamples of statins found in fungi include mevastatin from 


 and lovastatin from    and the oyster mushroom.[170]
PRODUCTION OF ORGANIC ACIDS:
Various species of fungi particularly Penicillium are
used in production of organic acids.

¦
 


Certain fungi, in particular "white rot" fungi, can degrade insecticides, herbicides,
pentachlorophenol, creosote, coal tars, and heavy fuels and turn them into carbon dioxide, water,
and basic elements.[205] Fungi have been shown to biomineralize uranium oxides, suggesting they
may have application in the bioremediation of radioactively polluted sites.[206][207][208]


 

 

Several pivotal discoveries in biology were made by researchers using fungi as model organisms,
that is, fungi that grow and sexually reproduce rapidly in the laboratory. For example, the one
gene-one enzyme hypothesis was formulated by scientists who used the bread mold  

  to test their biochemical theories.[209] Other important model fungi are  
  and the yeasts, -




  and -


 
 , each of
which has a long history of use to investigate issues in eukaryotic cell biology and genetics, such
as cell cycle regulation, chromatin structure, and gene regulation. Other fungal models have
more recently emerged that each address specific biological questions relevant to medicine, plant
pathology, and industrial uses; examples include "  
, a dimorphic, opportunistic
human pathogen,[210]     , a plant pathogen,[211] and 
 , a yeast
widely used for eukaryotic protein expression.[212]



Fungi are used extensively to produce industrial chemicals like citric, gluconic, lactic, and malic
acids,[213] and industrial enzymes, such as lipases used in biological detergents,[214] cellulases
used in making cellulosic ethanol[215] and stonewashed jeans,[216] and amylases,[217] invertases,
proteases and xylanases.[218] Several species, most notably 
  (colloquially
known as  
), are ingested for their psychedelic properties, both recreationally
and religiously.


The medicinal fungi g  
 (left) and "
   (right).
    accounts for the majority of fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide.

Stilton cheese veined with 
 #!

Grasshoppers killed by