Fungi range from being microscopic, single-celled yeasts to multicellular and heterotrophic in nature. Fungal communities have been found in vast ranges of environmental conditions. They can be associated with plants epiphytically, endophytically, or rhizospherically. Extreme environments represent unique ecosystems that harbor novel biodiversity of fungal communities. Interest in the exploration of fungal diversity has been spurred by the fact that fungi perform numerous functions integral in sustaining the biosphere, ranging from nutrient cycling to environmental detoxification, which involves processes like augmentation, supplementation, and recycling of plant nutrients - a particularly important process in sustainable agriculture. Fungal communities from natural and extreme habitats help promote plant growth, enhance crop yield, and enhance soil fertility via direct or indirect plant growth promoting (PGP) mechanisms of solubilization of phosphorus, potassium, and zinc, production of ammonia, hydrogen cyanides, phytohormones, Fe-chelating compounds, extracellular hydrolytic enzymes, and bioactive secondary metabolites. These PGP fungi could be used as biofertilizers, bioinoculants, and biocontrol agents in place of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in eco-friendly manners for sustainable agriculture and environments. Along with agricultural applications, medically important fungi play a significant role for human health. Fungal communities are useful for sustainable environments as they are used for bioremediation which is the use of microorganisms' metabolism to degrade waste contaminants (sewage, domestic, and industrial effluents) into non-toxic or less toxic materials by natural biological processes. Fungi could be used as mycoremediation for the future of environmental sustainability. Fungi and fungal products have the biochemical and ecological capability to degrade environmental organic chemicals and to decrease the risk associated with metals, semi-metals, and noble metals either by chemical modification or by manipulating chemical bioavailability. The two volumes of Recent Trends in Mycological Research aim to provide an understanding of fungal communities from diverse environmental habitats and their potential applications in agriculture, medical, environments and industry. The books are useful to scientists, researchers, and students involved in microbiology, biotechnology, agriculture, molecular biology, environmental biology and related subjects.

Fungi range from being microscopic, single-celled yeasts to multicellular and heterotrophic in nature. Fungal communities have been found in vast ranges of environmental conditions. They can be associated with plants epiphytically, endophytically, or rhizospherically. Extreme environments represent unique ecosystems that harbor novel biodiversity of fungal communities. Interest in the exploration of fungal diversity has been spurred by the fact that fungi perform numerous functions integral in sustaining the biosphere, ranging from nutrient cycling to environmental detoxification, which involves processes like augmentation, supplementation, and recycling of plant nutrients--a particularly important process in sustainable agriculture. Fungal communities from natural and extreme habitats help promote plant growth, enhance crop yield, and soil fertility via direct or indirect plant growth promoting (PGP) mechanisms of solubilization of phosphorus, potassium, and zinc, production of ammonia, hydrogen cyanides, phytohormones, Fe-chelating compounds, extracellular hydrolytic enzymes, and bioactive secondary metabolites. These PGP fungi could be used as biofertilizers, bioinoculants, and biocontrol agents in place of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in eco-friendly manners for sustainable agriculture and environments. Along with agricultural applications, medically important fungi play significant role for human health. Fungal communities are useful for sustainable environments as they are used for bioremediation which is the use of microorganisms' metabolism to degrading waste contaminants (sewage, domestic, and industrial effluents) into non-toxic or less toxic materials by natural biological processes. Fungi could be used as mycoremediation for the future of environmental sustainability. Fungi and fungal products have the biochemical and ecological capability to degrade environmental organic chemicals and to decrease the risk associated with metals, semi-metals, and noble metals either by chemical modification or by manipulating chemical bioavailability. The two volumes of "Recent Trends in Mycological Research” aim to provide an understanding of fungal communities from diverse environmental habitats and their potential applications in agriculture, medical, environments and industry. The books are useful to scientists, researchers, and students involved in microbiology, biotechnology, agriculture, molecular biology, environmental biology and related subjects.

Infections caused by fungi have recently attracted the attention of both clinicians and basic researchers given the heavy burden they represent for any health system. The mortality and morbidity rates associated to mycosis are progressively rising simply because some of these diseases are still neglected by health-care workers and due to the changing sensitivity to antifungal drugs displayed by these organisms. In this book, both researchers and clinicians working in the medical mycology field explore the most recent literature about specific mycosis; placing in one concise chapter thoroughly revisions of the current knowledge on virulence factors, recognition by immune cells, immunoevasion, epidemiology, new diagnosis trends and therapeutics. This book is recommended to researchers, physicians and students interested in medical mycology.

The fungal kingdom consists of a wide variety of organisms with a diverse range of forms and functions. Fungi have been utilized for thousands of years and their importance in agriculture, medicine, food production and the environmental sciences is well known. New advances in genomic and metabolomic technologies have allowed further developments in the use of fungi in industry and medicine, increasing the need for a compilation of new applications, developments and technologies across the mycological field. Applied Mycology brings together a range of contributions, highlighting the diverse nature of current research. Chapters include discussions of fungal associations in the environment, agriculture and forestry, long established and novel applications of fungi in fermentation, the use of fungi in the pharmaceutical industry, the growing recognition of fungal infections, current interests in the use fungal enzymes in biotechnology and the new and emerging field of myconanotechnology. Demonstrating the broad coverage and importance of mycological research, this book will be of interest to researchers and students in all biological sciences.

Fungal pathogens pose an on-going and serious threat for poikilotherms and homeotherms, and can cause a broad spectrum of diseases ranging from innocuous to life-threatening. In addition, long-term exposure to some mycotoxigenic moulds can lead to mycotoxicoses in human and animals. Given the expanding population of immune compromised hosts, the list of fungal opportunists grows longer every year. Moreover, antifungal resistance, drug-related toxicity and our limited arsenal of antifungals have exacerbated the situation. To address these problems, strategies such as the identification of novel targets, use of the structure-activity relationship in rational drug design, development of new formulations, modification of existing antifungals to combat resistance, and bioavailability enhancement are called for. For the reader’s convenience, this book has been divided into three sections. The first six chapters of Section I provide a timely review of mycoses, from endemic to cosmopolitan and from generalized to specific, while both chapters of Section II focus on risks associated with mycotoxins. In closing, the two chapters of Section III describe potential antifungal leads and drug candidates based on phytochemicals and coumarin scaffold.

This latest volume in the Current Topics in Medical Mycology series brings together internationally recognized researchers to summarize current topics of interest to medical mycologists and other scientists who are working in microbiology and immunology. A blend of contemporary, authoritative reviews and summaries of new advancements and future directions, Volume 3 aims to promote the interdisciplinary use of medically important fungi in pathogenesis, epidemiology, mycotoxins, taxonomy, and other areas where basic, applied, and clinical science are used.

Examining the progress and shifts that have taken place towards understanding fungi, this volume examines most of the major groups, including Chytridiomycota, Zygomycota, Ascomycota, and Basidiomycota. Topics include advances in morphological and molecular taxonomy of the highly toxigenic Fusarium species, understanding the phylogeny of the alterna

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “brilliant [and] entrancing” (The Guardian) journey into the hidden lives of fungi—the great connectors of the living world—and their astonishing and intimate roles in human life, with the power to heal our bodies, expand our minds, and help us address our most urgent environmental problems. “Grand and dizzying in how thoroughly it recalibrates our understanding of the natural world.”—Ed Yong, author of An Immense World ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—Time, BBC Science Focus, The Daily Mail, Geographical, The Times, The Telegraph, New Statesman, London Evening Standard, Science Friday When we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that supports and sustains nearly all living systems. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel, and behave. In the first edition of this mind-bending book, Sheldrake introduced us to this mysterious but massively diverse kingdom of life. This exquisitely designed volume, abridged from the original, features more than one hundred full-color images that bring the spectacular variety, strangeness, and beauty of fungi to life as never before. Fungi throw our concepts of individuality and even intelligence into question. They are metabolic masters, earth makers, and key players in most of life’s processes. They can change our minds, heal our bodies, and even help us remediate environmental disaster. By examining fungi on their own terms, Sheldrake reveals how these extraordinary organisms—and our relationships with them—are changing our understanding of how life works. Winner of the Wainwright Prize, the Royal Society Science Book Prize, and the Guild of Food Writers Award • Shortlisted for the British Book Award • Longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize

The Kingdom fungi encompass a massive diversity of taxa with wide-ranging ecologies, life cycles, and morphologies ranging from unicellular aquatic chytrids to large mushrooms. Before molecular methods came in existence, taxonomists considered this Kingdom to be a member of the plant kingdom due to certain life styles like immobility and growth habitats. Molecular markers (also known as DNA markers), facilitated a better alternative method over traditional morphological methods, employed for the identification, characterization, and to understand the evolution of fungi. The morphological methods used for identification are mainly dependent on spore color or microscopic features whereas molecular markers are based on DNA polymorphism in the genomic organization. Phylogenetic studies reported in last decade, based on molecular markers, have reshaped the classification system of Kingdom fungi, which divided into one subkingdom, seven phyla, and ten subphyla. Recent advances in molecular mycology have opened the way for researchers to identify and characterize novel fungal species from unique environments. Mycology is concerned with the systematic study of fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their use to humans as a source of medicine and food, as well as their dangers, such as poisoning and infections. In the 21st century with the development of DNA sequencing technologies and phylogenetic analysis based on molecular markers, new insights into fungal taxonomy were provided. This book contains a thorough discussion of molecular characterization and detection of different groups of fungi by using PCR-based markers and provides a comprehensive view of the applications and uses of different molecular markers in molecular mycology. It also addresses the recent molecular markers employed to solve the problems of identification and discusses current approaches used in molecular characterization and detection of fungi.

Mycological Studies is a cross-fertilization of language and fungus, exposing the similarities between the two species. Just as mushrooms sprout suddenly and explosively, so does language ... Jay MillAr's second collection of poems looks at the world of mushrooms through a kaleidoscope of perspectives and styles, ranging from innovative and constraint-based writing to visual and concrete poetry. This book makes a unique contribution to the poetry of science and nature; if mushrooms have a language that is spoken to us or through us as hallucinogenic experiences, MillAr has managed to tap into that language and refine it into potent poetic form. 'As readers,' says MillAr, 'we witness that which occurs on and above the surface of language. Meanwhile, the fungal threads themselves, lying beneath or between the letters, faithfully connect each piece of the whole to all of the others in a particular order forever unknown to the reader.' Mycological Studies is an uncanny book, one that suggests that the divides between the sentient and the unconscious are frequently bridged in subtle and mysterious ways.