Mycology 2019

The mushroom is a spore-bearing, fleshy fruiting body of a fungus, which grows above ground on soil or on organic food source. The most important microscopic feature for identification of mushrooms is the spores. Their spores, called basidiospores, are produced on the gills and fall in a fine rain of powder from under the caps as a result. Mushrooms are the fruit bodies of members of the order agaricales, whose type genus is agaricus and type species is the field mushroom, agaricus campestris. However, in modern molecularly defined classifications, not all members of the order agaricales produce mushroom fruit bodies, and many other gilled fungi, collectively called mushrooms, occur in other orders of the class agaricomycetes. It is formed within the mycelium, the mass of threadlike hyphae that make up the fungus. Many species of mushrooms seemingly appear overnight, growing or expanding rapidly. In reality all species of mushrooms take several days to form primordial mushroom fruit bodies, though they do expand rapidly by the absorption of fluids. An atypical mushroom is the lobster mushroom, which is a deformed, by the mycoparasitic ascomycete hypomyces lactifluorum. Some are having pores underneath, others have spines. 

Fungal biofilms are a growing clinical problem related with significant rates of mortality. Candida albicans is the most notorious of all fungal biofilm formers. However, non-Candida species, yeasts such as Cryptococcus neoformans, and filamentous moulds such as Aspergillus fumigatus, have been shown to be implicated in biofilm-associated infections. Fungal biofilms have distinct developmental phases, including adhesion, colonisation, maturation and dispersal, which are governed by complex molecular events. Recalcitrance to antifungal therapy remains the greatest threat to patients with fungal biofilms. This analysis is to discuss our current understanding of the basic biology and clinical implications associated with fungal biofilms.

Most industrial processes used fungal cells for the bulk manufacturing of organic acids, proteins, enzymes, secondary metabolites and active pharmaceutical ingredients in white and red biotechnology. A number of challenges now need to be addressed to improve our strategies to control fungal pathogenicity and to optimise the use of fungi as sources for novel compounds. In addition to the multiple reaction sequences of fermentations, fungi are extremely useful in carrying out biotransformation processes. Molecular manipulations have been added to mutational techniques as a means of increasing yields of microbial processes and in the discovery of new drugs. 

Fungi are eukaryotic organisms which cannot produce their own energy and depend on enzymatic processes for metabolic activity to absorb nutrition. Its kingdom encompasses tremendous biological diversity, with members covering a wide range of lifestyles, forms, habitats, and sizes. Advances in molecular techniques have formed the base for a boost in studies concerning fungal diversity and the fast development of next generation sequencing technologies promises further progress towards a more thorough understanding of fungal diversity and function. The current limited knowledge of fungal diversity and biology complicates an assessment of the conservation status of fungal species and has hindered the development of conservation tools and efforts. 

Pathogenic fungi cause disease in humans and in other organisms, which is called as fungal pathogenesis. Fungal pathogens can be divided into two general classes’ primary pathogens and opportunistic pathogens. Currently, there has been a dramatic increase in fungal infections of this type, in particular candidiasis, cryptococcosis, aspergillosis, and zygomycosis. More recently described mycoses of this category include hyalohyphomycosis and phaeohyphomycosis.

The superficial mycoses -these are superficial cosmetic fungal infections of the skin or hair shaft.

Dermatophytosis - ringworm or tinea - ringworm of scalp, glabrous skin, and nails caused by a closely related group of fungi known as dermatophytes.

The subcutaneous mycoses - these are chronic, localized infections of the skin and subcutaneous tissue following the traumatic implantation of the aetiologic agent.

Infectious disease mycology - these are fungal infections of the body caused by dimorphic fungal pathogens.

Mushrooms play extremely important roles in the ecosystem, and some are famously delicious, but some are also famously deadly. In recent years has focused on various immunological and anti-cancer properties of certain mushrooms, they also offer other potentially important health benefits, including antioxidants, anti-hypertensive and cholesterol-lowering properties, liver protection, as well as anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-viral and anti-microbial properties. These properties have attracted the interest of many pharmaceutical companies, which are viewing the medicinal mushroom as a rich source of innovative biomedical molecules. 

Bacterial and fungal interactions can form a range of physical associations that depend on various modes of molecular communication for their development and functioning. The combination of physical associations and molecular interactions between fungi and other microbes can result in a variety of different outcomes for each partner. In turn, these changes may affect the influence of the fungal-microbe  complex. Applications are found in various biological fields i.e. Food processing, fermentation and brewing, cheese ripening, bioremediation of pollutants, natural product discovery and synthetic biology. 

Mycotoxins are the secondary metabolites that are produced by filamentous fungi. It is capable of causing disease and death in humans and other animals. Because of their pharmacological activity, some mycotoxins or mycotoxin derivatives have found use as antibiotics, growth promotants, and other kinds of drugs; still others have been implicated as chemical warfare agents. Mycoses are the best-known diseases of fungal etiology, but toxic secondary metabolites produced by saprophytic species are also an important health hazard. The term mycotoxin is an artificial rubric used to describe pharmacologically active mold metabolites characterized by vertebrate toxicity. Mycotoxins generally enter the body via ingestion of contaminated foods, but inhalation of toxigenic spores and direct dermal contact are also important routes.

Filamentous fungi are used by industry for manufacture of a large variety of useful products. The products include metabolites, enzymes and food. Fungal cells can grow at different environmental conditions and environmental diversity. The chemical and physical conditions used for fungal propagation which depends up on fungal genetics and biology will have a great impact on the capability of these cells to accumulate the desired product(s). Mevinolin, cyclosporine A, β-lactam antibiotics, pneumocandins, ergotamine, strobilurins, and mycophenolic acid are examples of revolutionary pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals that have a fungal origin in spite of the success of bioactive fungal metabolites as pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals and fungi remain s an essentially untapped source of medicines because only a small fraction of the vast fungal kingdom has been explored for bioactive metabolite production. However, recent advances in the genetics of microbial secondary metabolite biosynthesis, genomics, and metabolic engineering will play an ever-increasing role in facilitating fungal bioactive metabolites discovery.

Fungi occur in all type of environment on earth and plays vital roles in most ecosystems. These are the major decomposers along with bacteria in most terrestrial and some aquatic ecosystems, and therefore play a critical role in biogeochemical cycles and in many food webs play an essential role in nutrient cycling by degrading organic matters to inorganic molecules, which can then re-enter to different anabolic metabolic pathways in plants and other organisms. 

Symbioses are the type of intimate associations which involves two or more species. Fungi have numerous symbioses involving many eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Symbioses are categorized according to the relative benefit or harm that the partners experience as a consequence of the interactions i.e. Parasitism or mutualism in the association.

Lichen - The appearance of lichens is plant-like which hides their true identity. It is not a single organism, but the result is mutualistic symbiosis between an alga or cyanobacteria and a fungus. The fungus lichen provides its partner a benefit by giving protection and in return it gains nutrients. Lichens can grow in a wide range of shapes and is usually determined according to the organization of the fungal filaments. The fungus part of lichen benefits from the algae or cyanobacteria as they produce food by photosynthesis. 

Mycorrhizae – This association is between fungi and plant roots, where the fungi derive photosynthetic sugars from the plants, and they assist the plant by facilitating the uptake of mineral nutrients and water. Approximately 70-80% of all plants have mycorrhizae. There are two major forms of mycorrhizae.

• Ectomycorrhizae are formed primarily by basidiomycetes and also a few ascomycetes. 
• Arbuscular mycorrhizae are formed by zygomycetes called glomales

The presence of fungi in food has been both advantage and problems to food stores. Fungi can spoil large quantities of food and produce dangerous toxins that threaten human health; however, fungal spoilage in certain foods can produce a unique, highly prized food source and there are some very effective fungal derived medicines. A thorough understanding of the vast body of knowledge relating to food mycology requires an inclusive volume that covers both the beneficial and detrimental roles of fungi in our food supply. These include food groups such as bakery products, dairy products, beverages (e.g. fruit juices), dried fruits and nuts, and confectionary. Fungi can also present health risks by the production of specific toxic agents called mycotoxins, which are often poorly understood, but are being increasingly recognised as agents of both acute and chronic toxicity in humans and animals. This creates an opportunity in research towards the fungi and yeasts, and the problems they can cause in foods, in terms of spoilage and health effects. It will present a balanced view of the importance of these agents in the context of the modern food industry.

^{A key ingredient in successful entrepreneurship is self-knowledge. (Mycology-2016) aims to bring together all existing and budding bio entrepreneurs to share experiences and present new innovations and challenges in microbiological community. Each year, over a million companies are started in the world with about 5–10 of them classified as high technology companies. Turning ideas into business ventures is tricky and the opportunity-recognition step is critical in new venture creation. This gestalt in the entrepreneur's perception of the relationship between the invention and final product is refined into a business model that describes how the venture will make money or provide an appropriate return to the potential investors. Biological science is complex and rapidly changing and requires a specialized knowledge to understand the value of the innovation and its competitive position in the industry. Although life scientists are typically the founders of biotech companies, studies have shown that the most successful high tech startups are founded by a team of two to three individuals with mixed backgrounds, substantial industry experience and a very clear market and product focus at founding. This three day community-wide conference will be a highly interactive forum that will bring experts in areas ranging from structural microbiology to signaling pathways to novel therapeutic approaches to the scientific hub. In addition to our outstanding speakers, we will also showcase short talks and poster presentations from submitted abstracts.The speakers will discuss how microbes can be engineered to report using computational inputs from their local environment. This session will include combined efforts of cutting edge synthetic biology research to highlight the current state, challenges and future of engineered microbial communities.}