New Opportunities in Fungal Biotechnology

Dear Colleagues,

There is a long history of biotechnological use of fungi. Since ancient times, fungi have been used for processing and the production of various foods. More recently, fungi have been employed as important workhorses in industrial biotechnology—ranging from the production of recombinant enzymes to the production of biochemicals and fuels. Fungi are also used as hosts to produce life-saving biopharmaceuticals such as insulin. Interestingly, the spectrum of applications where fungi play an essential role is expanding vigorously. We have witnessed novel applications such as cellular agriculture which involves the production of recombinant animal proteins and other compounds for use in food—aiming at providing more economical and environmentally friendly ways to obtain substitutes for meat and dairy products. Furthermore, there are novel uses of fungi either as production hosts or in material applications such as “fungal leather” where fungal biomass is utilized.

Apart from exciting new scientific findings, the ongoing developments bring along significant investments and business. The field of fungal biotech is “mushrooming” with new ambitious start-up companies, while at the same time, established biotech companies are adapting their operations to the new markets as well. Together with the growing demand, the challenges also grow as the requirements for the yield and quality of the products must match expectations and regulations. It is obvious that new production technologies, including establishing novel hosts and approaches, are needed to fulfill these expectations.

This Special Issue will be dedicated to novel fungal hosts and novel ways how to utilize these hosts for production of various compounds. Emphasis will be given to new techniques for heterologous gene expression, metabolic engineering, strain development, and cultivation methods to broaden the portfolio of the current approaches and to highlight the potential of the fungal kingdom for current and future biotechnology.

Dr. Dominik Mojzita
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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