Introduction to Fungi
Penicillin, derived from the Penicillium fungi, became the first mass-produced antibiotic in the 1940s.
Types of Fungi and Their Roles
Types of Fungi include: Chytridiomycota, Chytrids, Zygomycota, Zygomycetes, Glomeromycota, Ascomycota.
Fungi are also used as food including some mushrooms, morels, and truffles. Mycoproteins derived from mycelia of fungi are used to make high protein foods. Fungi can be divided into yeasts and hyphae. Yeasts are unicellular fungi reproducing by blastoconidia formation or fission. Hyphae are multi-cellular fungi reproducing asexually and/or sexually.
Beneficial fungi improve health and provide food sources like yogurt. Harmful fungi cause infection and disease. Examples of good fungi are mushrooms and yeast for bread, wine, and cheese. Infectious fungi cause ringworm and athlete’s foot.
Fungi are essential in bread, beer, and cheese production but also cause deadly infections. Fungi have both positive effects like food sources and negative effects like infection and disease. Fungal diseases attack plants like Dutch elm disease, corn smut, and wheat rust.
Beneficial Fungi
Fungi like Fusarium and Penicillium can decompose polymers. Fungi help increase soil fertility by decomposing organic matter. Mycoproteins from fungi mycelia are used to make high protein foods.
Other uses of fungi include:
- Baking
- Brewing
- Cheese production
- Producing industrial chemicals
Fungi cause diseases when they become human parasites like Candida yeast and Trichophyton fungal infections.
Examples of useful fungi are mushrooms and Penicillium. Antibiotics like penicillin act against infections, and mushrooms act like antioxidants rich in vitamin D.