Mushroom Nanobiotechnology:Concepts, Developments and Potentials
Authors:
AINA Ayandiran
Publication Type: Books
Journal: Springer
ISSN Number:
0
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Abstract
Historically, mushroom is a collective term for describing diverse species of macro-fungi which the primitive Romans referred to asfood of the gods, the Stone AgedEgyptians named itthe gifts from god of Osiris,while to the earliest Chinese, itisthe elixir of life(Smith et al.2002). However, in the world today, mushroomsare described as fungi fruiting bodies of orders Basidiomycetes and Ascomyceteswhich play vital roles in the management of forest ecosystems as they have thepotential of decomposing complex biomolecules and recycling nutrients within theecosystem. Thus, they are found all over the world mainly, in soils rich in organicmatter(humus),moistwoodandanimalswaste.Mushroomsstandoutintheirhabitatswith the possession of umbrella like fruiting bodies, remarkable colours and sizes.Interestingly, mushrooms fruiting bodies disappear after a heavy rain or a suddenchange in temperature, leaving behind the mycelia, and this has drawn the attentionof mankind to the study of mushrooms. Recently in a study by Bal et al. (2017),approximately 10% of all mushroom species on Earth has been extensively studied.Similarly, about 2000 species of 31 genera are classified as edible mushrooms whilea little over 10% of the extensively studied species are classified as poisonous orlethal (Teferi et al.2013; Ruan-Soto et al.2017)