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Fungi have appeared, too, from time to time, in literature and art. Fungi create harm by spoiling food, destroying timber, and by causing diseases of crops, livestock, and humans. Fungi, mainly moulds like Penicillium and Aspergillus, spoil many stored foods. Fungi cause the majority of plant diseases, which in turn cause serious economic losses.
Medicinal fungi are fungi that contain metabolites or can be induced to produce metabolites through biotechnology to develop prescription drugs. Compounds successfully developed into drugs or under research include antibiotics , anti-cancer drugs , cholesterol and ergosterol synthesis inhibitors, psychotropic drugs, immunosuppressants and ...
Fungi and other organisms traditionally recognized as fungi, such as oomycetes and myxomycetes (slime molds), often are economically and socially important, as some cause diseases of animals (including humans) and of plants. [10] Apart from pathogenic fungi, many fungal species are very important in controlling the plant diseases caused by ...
This is not unusual among fungi, as non-endophytic plant pathogens have similar conditionally beneficial effects on defense. [66] Some species of endophyte may be beneficial for the plants in other ways (e.g. nutrient and water uptake) but will provide less benefit as a plant receives more damage and not produce defensive chemicals in response.
In return, the plant gains the benefits of the mycelium's higher absorptive capacity for water and mineral nutrients, partly because of the large surface area of fungal hyphae, which are much longer and finer than plant root hairs, and partly because some such fungi can mobilize soil minerals unavailable to the plants' roots. The effect is thus ...
These benefits have also been identified as the primary drivers of positive interactions and feedbacks between plants and mycorrhizal fungi that influence plant species abundance. [ 59 ] The formation and nature of these networks is context-dependent, and can be influenced by factors such as soil fertility , resource availability, host or ...
Toadstool generally denotes one poisonous to humans. [1] The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence, the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi (Basidiomycota, Agaricomycetes) that have a stem , a cap , and gills (lamellae, sing.
Mutualism describes the ecological interaction between two or more species where each species has a net benefit. [1] Mutualism is a common type of ecological interaction. Prominent examples are: the nutrient exchange between vascular plants and mycorrhizal fungi, the fertilization of flowering plants by pollinators,