Marine Fungal Communities: Metabolic Engineering for Secondary Metabolites and Their Industrial Applications

Apart from playing a key role in the ecosystems, fungi are also beneficial for industrial and other uses such as pigment, drug production, food industry, and bioremediation. Rhizosphere fungi are a critical component of the rhizosphere microbial communities and play an important role in plant growth and health. Fungi are somewhere in between the microorganisms and macroorganism which is a good source of producing biologically active secondary metabolites. Fungi have been used as a tool for producing different types of secondary metabolites by providing different nutrients at different laboratory conditions. In turn, plants largely control rhizosphere fungi through the production of carbon- and energy-rich compounds and bioactive phytochemicals. Fungi are important soil components as both decomposers and plant symbionts and play a major role in ecological and biogeochemical process. However, little is known about the richness and structure of fungal communities. Marine fungi are an ecological, not a taxonomic, grouping, known primarily as saprotrophs from intertidal zones where they represent an important food source for invertebrates. Fungi consider as designing of vectors, as a food, as a rich source of Single Cell Proteins, isolation of fungal metabolites of pharmaceutical importance, fungal pathogens as nibblers, fungi in improving the quality of produce, fungi as biofertilizers, as microbial week killer, cellulose degradation by fungi, bioconversion of lignin, entomopathogenic fungi, industrial applications of fungi, biodegradation of pesticides/toxic chemicals and petroleum, and biomineralization of heavy metals. Marine fungi perform important and unique ecosystem functions in diverse environments from coral reefs to marine sediments at the bottom of the ocean. Marine fungi have unique adaptations to salinity and intense pressures found in the deep ocean. Marine fungi are also natural resources rich in various antimicrobial compounds such as cephalosporins, anthrones, anthraquinones, polyketides, alkaloids, peptides, sulfoalkylresorcinols, aflatoxins, diterpenoids, steroids, and glycosphingolipids.