Fungi playa major role in the sustainability of the biosphere, and mycorrhizal fungi are essential for the growth of many of our woods and forests. The applications of fungi in agriculture, industry and biotechnology remain of paramount importance, as does their use as a source of drugs and to help clean up our environment. This volume contains key papers from the conference 'From Ethnomycology to Fungal Biotechnology: Exploiting Fungi from Natural Resources for Novel Products'. This was the first international scientific conference covering the transfer of traditional remedies and processes in ethnomycology to modern fungal biotechnology. The conference was held at Simla, Himachal Pradesh, India from 15 to 16 December 1997. The key subject areas addressed in the conference were the issues of exploring and exploiting fungal diversity for novel leads to new antibiotics, enzymes, medicines and a range of other leads for wood preservation, biological control, agricultural biotechnology and the uses of fungi in the food industry. The conference programme included key-note presentations followed by poster sessions and general discussion. The book is broadly based, covering five main areas: Ethnomycology, Fungal Biotechnology, Biological Control, Mycorrhizal Fungi and Fungal Pests. There is no doubt that in the past fungi have played a key role in ethnomycological remedies and that in the future they will continue to attract the interest of a wide range of disciplines ranging from environmental conservation, agriculture and the food industry to wood preservation and aerobiological studies.

White biotechnology is industrial biotechnology dealing with various biotech products through applications of microbes. The main application of white biotechnology is commercial production of various useful organic substances, such as acetic acid, citric acid, acetone, glycerine, etc., and antibiotics like penicillin, streptomycin, mitomycin, etc., and value added product through the use of microorganisms especially fungi and bacteria. The value-added products included bioactive compounds, secondary metabolites, pigments and industrially important enzymes for potential applications in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, medicine and allied sectors for human welfare. In the 21st century, techniques were developed to harness fungi to protect human health (through antibiotics, antimicrobial, immunosuppressive agents, value-added products etc.), which led to industrial scale production of enzymes, alkaloids, detergents, acids, biosurfactants. The first large-scale industrial applications of modern biotechnology have been made in the areas of food and animal feed production (agricultural/green biotechnology) and pharmaceuticals (medical/red biotechnology). In contrast, the production of bio-active compounds through fermentation or enzymatic conversion is known industrial or white biotechnology. The beneficial fungal strains may play important role in agriculture, industry and the medical sectors. The beneficial fungi play a significance role in plant growth promotion, and soil fertility using both, direct (solubilization of phosphorus, potassium and zinc; production of indole acetic acid, gibberellic acid, cytokinin and siderophores) and indirect (production of hydrolytic enzymes, siderophores, ammonia, hydrogen cyanides and antibiotics) mechanisms of plant growth promotion for sustainable agriculture. The fungal strains and their products (enzymes, bio-active compounds and secondary metabolites) are very useful for industry. The discovery of antibiotics is a milestone in the development of white biotechnology. Since then, white biotechnology has steadily developed and now plays a key role in several industrial sectors, providing both high valued nutraceuticals and pharmaceutical products. The fungal strains and bio-active compounds also play important role in the environmental cleaning. This volume covers the latest research developments related to value-added products in white biotechnology through fungi.

Fungi are the renowned eukaryotic organisms. They are heterotrophs like animals, plants and most of the bacteria and studied under the separate branch of science âMycology'. They are abundantly found worldwide as yeasts, moulds, mushrooms etc. Due to the discovery of the different types of fungi, their working styles, habitats, their growing style, culture, sources and optimum locality, fungi have been classified separately from the other eukaryotes like animal and plants. In modern time, there are a number of diseases known which have been caused by fungi but many more significant and useful functions of them are also known and well discovered. Their various positive roles in medicines, remediation, food industries, agriculture, paper and pulp industries, chemical industries, biological researches etc. make them highly significant objectives for researchers and scientists. They also secrete a number of biologically valuable enzymes which further enhance their utility in the field of biotechnology. Their worldwide distributions make them easily available for the research. A number of researches in the field of fungal biotechnology are currently running in order to explore their momentous properties related to their nutraceutical and pharmaceutical values. In this regard, the deep study of their detailed properties, sources, culture, secretion of enzymes, isolation techniques, characterization, kinetics etc. are highly required. Handy nature, very easy language, scientific writing style and advanced research materials of this book make this interesting and highly helpful for the readers and researchers of the field of life sciences, biochemistry and biotechnology to conduct their research. Students of undergraduate and post graduate courses of life sciences/biochemistry/biotechnology will also highly benefit from this book. This book has recent, descriptive as well as up to date information on the recent developments in the world of fungi in the form 17 chapters (divided in two sections: section A and section B) prepared by admirable scientific collaborations. Each chapter has been written by worldwide eminent experts of their scientific research fields. This book covered several valuable and promising topics: (i) Diversity, distribution and classification of fungi. (ii) Isolation, identification and characterization of fungi. (iii) Study of the fungal culture, growth, production, optimization etc. (iv) Rhizospheric fungi, endophytic fungi, lichens, pathogens and secondary metabolites. (v) Fungal properties and applications, biologically potential mushrooms, nutraceutical applications, pharmaceutical applications and bioconversions of wastes materials etc. (vi) Secretion of the different enzymes from fungi (vii) Fungal enzymes, their purification, characterization, kinetics, properties and applications in the field of biotechnology.

Contributions from 80 world-renowned authorities representing a broad international background lend Fungal Biotechnology in Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Applicationsfirst-class information on the biotechnological potential of entomopathogenic fungi and ergot alkaloids, applications of Trichoderma in disease control, and the development of mycoherbicides. Additional topics include fungal control of nematodes, control of plant disease by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, strategies for controlling vegetable and fruit crops, molecular biology tactics with mycotoxigenic fungi and the development of biofungicides, production of edible fungi, fermented foods, and high-value products like mycoprotein.

Mushrooms are fleshy fungi with a high prospective for the production of secondary metabolites including extracellular enzymes with high agricultural and biotechnological significance. Worldwide, they are well recognized as supplementary foods due to their high nutritional values and their medicinal importance, which includes their uses in exhibiting antioxidant and antimicrobial activities, immune enhancer, and to be effective for the treatment of several diseases including diabetes and few types of cancers as well. According to recent studies, extracellular enzymes produced by several white-rot fungal strains such as Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Pleurotus sajor-caju and several mushrooms have shown a high capacity to decolorize dyes that are very harmful for the environment. Moreover, wild macrofungi have the capability to synthesize nanoparticles which are more useful for the treatment of cancer, gene therapy, DNA analysis and biosensors. Wild macrofungi are extremely important model for basic biology and commercial manufacture.

Outlines the development of the main branches of mycology.