Dr. Yash Pal Sharma
On the occasion of World Fungus Day (WFD) today let me expose you to the mesmerizing world of nature’s best multitasking engineers performing the crucial tasks of decomposition, nutrient cycling, and contributing silently and selflessly in the sustainable progress of plants and animals, and humans on the planet earth. Yes! these are ubiquitous and stylish- Fungi that we encounter every day!
Fungi are a kingdom (Mycetae) of their own but are closer to animals than plants. These eukaryotic heterotrophs solubilize and digest their food from the diverse substrates by a battery of enzymes. They may be simple or complex microscopic (microfungi) including single-celled yeasts and moulds) or macroscopic (mushrooms) visible to the unaided eye. With a phenomenal rate of reproduction through vegetative, asexual, and sexual mechanisms, fungi perpetuate, diversify and remain competitive in the challenging environment occupied by other organisms. Intense genetic variability and biochemical composition confer endurance to fungi to thrive successfully in air, water, and land in the extremes of tropics to the temperate climate, cold and hot-arid deserts, across all continents including frozen Antarctica, mountains, forests, and grasslands, as endophytes, in your own garden, in your house, in the food, etc. In fact, everywhere!
WORLD FUNGUS DAY
Fungal diversity is the second largest after insects. The recent estimate suggests the total number of fungal species existing globally between 2.2 and 3.8 million. Out of these, however, only a little above than 150,000 species have been described so far. Therefore, the vast majority of them are currently unknown. Earning a sobriquet of ‘Orphans of Rio’ from David Minter (as they did not find even their mention in CBD at Rio De Janeiro,1992), fungi seem to be a continuously undermined in comparison to charismatic plants and amazing animals,. While the majority of the fungi people best recognize are either a few edible mushrooms or yeasts, the ones without any visible spore-bearing structures, remain obscure.
Understandably, for centuries, there exists a mycophobia (hatred for fungi) due to fungal plant diseases and crop losses, invading and spoiling edible commodities , and famines that burdened the human race with humanitarian, economic, and environmental crisis of enormous magnitude. The classic examples of fungal inflicted sufferings include the Irish Potato famine (1845) and Bengal famine in India (1945), are a few of the many. Mycotoxicoses predominantly caused by the species of Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Fusarium, fungal mycoses (such as skin infections, mucormycosis, candidiasis, etc.), and mushroom poisonings witnessed across the globe as well as in India, were the other fungal-led malaises that caused unabated human sufferings.
However, with the advent of resources and technology our understanding improved and it was realized that fungi have enormous applications thereby setting a mycophilic (love for fungi) tone amongst the people. The unique attributes of fungi have heralded great promise for their application in biotechnology and industry. Yeast-based fermentation, bread making, alcoholic beverages, etc. were practiced by humans as long ago as 9,000 years ago. The discovery of the life-saving drug Penicillin by A. Fleming from Penicillium chrsyogenum proved to be a gamechanger during World War II, cephalosporins as immunosuppressants proved a boon for the organ transplantation, cyclosporins, anti-cancer drug taxol, statins (Simvastatin), etc. brought a revolution in the pharmaceutical industry and presently the fungal-based medicinal drugs have a global trade of more than US $ 30 billion/yr. Fungal pre-and probiotics, and conversion of crop waste into bioethanol are much in vogue now.
Presently, more than 400 fungal species including mushrooms are consumed as foods. ‘White biotechnology’ of cultivated mushrooms and their value-added products are already making hundreds of billion-dollars, annually. While as the mushroom-derived antioxidant tea and coffee are already available in organic stores, the vegetarian meat ‘Quorn’ of fungal origin is becoming popular in the European countries
As an efficient regulator of carbon and nitrogen cycles due to their enzymatic ability to degrade cellulose and lignin, and mobilizing minerals, fungi are the best decomposers on the earth. And the good news is their capability of breaking down plastics in weeks rather than years. The cutting-edge technologies have made fungal-based dyes, cosmetics, bricks, and fabrics, etc. are a commercial reality now. Fungal enzymes, PUFAs, and organic acids have already revolutionized the nutraceutical industry. On one hand, as biofertilizers and biocontrol agents contribute to enhanced crop production and eco-friendly integrated pest management, on the other the health of the forests is accomplished through the underground ‘fungal internet’ called “wood wide web”.
FUTURE CONCERNS
Exploring fungal diversity, its conservation and bioprospecting especially with the climate change is the need of the hour. Although Asian nations, including India, have taken a lead in capacity building and research in mycology, generous funding from the government and the global conservation organizations is ardently and urgently needed for more biotechnological interventions to tap the potential of the underexplored fungal resources for ushering in a ‘non-green revolution’ for food security and a safe environment. We are glad that in tune with the world, for the first time in India today (2nd October 2021), a series of events on the World Fungus Day are being organized by the mycological societies and as well as national organizations such as the National Mission on Himalayan Studies (NMHS, MoEF&CC) (2nd October 2021). The WFD celebrations acquire great significance as this happens to be birthday of the ‘Father of the Nation’ Mahatma Gandhi.
Mycologists in particular owe a responsibility in removing the ‘Fungal Blindness’ and move towards ‘Fungal Literacy’. And today from this World Fungus Day 2021 onwards we all resolve that for health, healing and wellness we would admire, appreciate, and adopt fungi. Observing a National Fungus Day in India (occasionally we do celebrate a National Mushroom Day on 15th October) and nominating ‘National Fungus’ and ‘State Fungus’ to generate awareness about fungi amongst masses as has been done for plants and animals, is a good idea, I believe.
(The author is PI, NMHS Project & Professor Department of Botany University of Jammu)
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