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.

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

There has been a considerable amount of recent research aimed at elucidating the roles of chitinase in fungi and plants. In filamentous fungi and yeasts, chitinase is involved integrally in cell wall morphogenesis. Chitinase is also involved in the early events of host-parasite interactions of biotrophic and necrotrophic mycoparasites, entomopathogenic fungi and vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. In plants, induction of chitinase and other hydrolytic enzymes is one of a coordinated, often complex and multifaceted defense mechanism triggered in response to phytopathogen attack. Chitinase induction in plants is not considered solely as an antifungal resistance mechanism. Plant chitinases can be induced by various abiotic factors as well and there is some circumstantial evidence to suggest a morphogenetic role despite the apparent absence of the substrate in plant cells. Finally, some chitinases and other chitin-binding proteins including some plant lectins share chitin-binding domains as part of their molecular structure and provide fuel for the so-called ‘lectin-chitinase’ debate and speculation for the origin of chitinase in plants.

Chitinases of fungi and plants: their involvement in morphogenesis and host‐parasite interaction

This review article deals with recent developments in molecular and physiological aspects of chitinases from plants, fungi, bacteria, insects and fishes

What's new in chitinase research?

Chitin is produced in enormous quantities in the biosphere, chiefly as the major structural component of most fungi and invertebrates. Its degradation is chiefly by bacteria and fungi, by chitinolysis via chitinases, but also via deacetylation to chitosan, which is hydrolysed by chitosanases. Chitinases and chitosanases have a range of roles in the organisms producing them: autolytic, morphogenetic or nutritional. There are increasing examples of their roles in pathogenesis and symbiosis. A range of chitinase genes have been cloned, and the potential use for genetically manipulated organisms over-producing chitinases is being investigated. Chitinases also have a range of uses in processing chitinous material and producing defined oligosaccharides.

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Physiology of microbial degradation of chitin and chitosan

Fungal wheat (Triticum aestivum) diseases greatly affect crop productivity and require the economically and ecologically undesirable application of fungicides in wheat agriculture. We have generated transgenic wheat plants constitutively expressing an antifungal barley-seed class II chitinase. The transgene was stably expressed and the chitinase properly localized in the apoplast of the transgenic lines. The engineered wheat plants showed increased resistance to infection with the powdery mildew-causing fungus Erysiphe graminis.

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Genetic engineering of wheat for increased resistance to powdery mildew disease

Verticillium lecanii and Aphanocladium album infected in 5 days 90–95 % of the teliospores of Puccinia horiana, the major pathogen of Chrysanthemum. This suggests the possibility to expand the use of V. lecanii, a commercial biocontrol agent against aphids, in order to control P. horiana, V. lecanii and A. album parasitized other microcyclic rusts but with a lesser frequency: P. dianthi (82 and 88 %), P. malvacearum (72 and 60 %) and P. glomerata (57 and 61 %). Cladosporium sphaerospermum and C. uredinicola were less effective than V. lecanii and A. album against all rust species tested.

Zusammenfassung

Hyperparasitismus von Puccinia horiana und anderen mikrozyklischen Rostpilzen



Verticillium lecanii und Aphanocladium album infizierten in 5 Tagen 90—95% der Teleutosporen von Puccinia horiana, dem wichtigsten Krankheitserreger von Chrysanthemen. Es erscheint deshalb moglich, V. lecanii, das gegen Blattlause eingesetzt wird, gegen P. horiana anzuwenden. V. lecanii und A. album befielen auch andere mikrozyklische Rostpilze, jedoch in geringerem Ausmas: Puccinia dianthi (82 und 88%), P. malvacearum (71 und 60%) und P. glomerata (57 und 61%). Cladosporium sphaerospermum und C uredinicola waren gegen alle gepriiften Rostpilze weniger wirksam als V. lecanii und A. album.

Hyperparasitism of Puccinia horiana and other microcyclic rusts.

Aphanocladium album, a hyperparasite of wheat rust,Puccinia graminis vartritici, secretes chitinase when grown on a chitin-containing medium. This enzyme was purified and shown to attack the mycelium of the parasitized rust fungus.

A. K. Srivastava

Papers

Hyperparasitism of Puccinia horiana and other microcyclic rusts.

Secretion of chitinase by Aphanocladium album, a hyperparasite of wheat rust.