Different Shades of Fungal Metabolites: An Overview

Abstract

Fungi can be found in almost all types of habitats. Its several thousand species are very diverse in morphological characters with plethora of secondary metabolites. These secondary metabolites make some of the fungi our friend as well as foe. Many of these secondary metabolites exhibit harmful effect being mycotoxins. Fungi are notoriously known as food spoiler, causing damage to cooked food and grains, and as plant pathogen, causing various severe diseases. However, fungi are beneficial to mankind as producer of antibiotics, food colorant, enzymes, and as a nutritious food. Today many industries are based on fungi or fungal products. Fungi are believed to be the future microbial cell factories for the production of food grade pigments, enzymes, and pharmaceuticals. Owing to the increasing demand of these products, the large-scale production can be achieved by using modern tools of biotechnology and appropriate use of fermentation physiology. Heterologous expression of secondary metabolite production or even manipulation of physical and chemical growth factors can enhance the desired product yield with improved functionality. But still, there is a vast scope for improved production and search for novel fungal metabolites which will render our safe future against resistance-developing bacteria and other dreaded diseases. In this brief review, we present a global scenario of fungal metabolites.