Full Description
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 organicchemicals 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.
Contents
Preface.- Mycological Research for Agriculture and Medical Importance: An Introduction.- Beneficial Fungal Communities from Agricultural Soil for Plant Growth Promotion and Soil Health.- Plant Growth Promoting Fungi: Mechanisms and Applications for Crop Productivity.- Alleviation of Diverse Abiotic Stress in Plant Through the Fungal Communities.- Phosphate Solubilizing Fungi: Current Perspective and Future Need for Agricultural Sustainability.- Fe-Chelating Compounds Producing Fungal Communities and their Applications.- Fungal Diversity and Ecology: Major Challenges for Crop Production in Present Climate Scenarios.- Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi: Interactions with Plants and their Role in Agricultural Sustainability.- Portraying Fungal Mechanisms in Stress Tolerance: Perspective for Sustainable Agriculture.- Fungal Communities as Biological Control Agents for Different Phytopathogenic Organisms.- Fungal Nanoparticles for Sustainable Agriculture.- Medically Important Fungi: Biodiversity,Abundances, and Applications.- Isolation and Molecular Characterization of Medically Important Fungi: Current Research and Future Prospects.- Human Fungal Pathogens: Diversity, Genomics, and Preventions.- Formation, Resistance, and Pathogenicity of Fungal Biofilms: Current Trends and Future Challenges.- Mycological Interactions: Beneficial Impact on Pathogenesis and Human Disease.- Medical Applications of Fungal Nanotechnology: Current Research and Future Scope.- Agriculturally and Medically Important Fungi: Conclusion and Future Vision.- Bibliography.- Index.
