How are fungi important to humans?

Answer 1

• Recycling

  Fungi, together with bacteria, are responsible for most of the recycling which returns dead material to the soil in a form in which it can be reused. Without fungi, these recycling activities would be seriously reduced. We would effectively be lost under piles many metres thick, of dead plant and animal remains.

• Mycorrhizae and plant growth

  Fungi are vitally important for the good growth of most plants, including crops, through the development of mycorrhizal associations. As plants are at the base of most food chains, if their growth was limited, all animal life, including human, would be seriously reduced through starvation.

• Food

  Fungi are also important directly as food for humans. Many mushrooms are edible and different species are cultivated for sale worldwide. While this is a very small proportion of the actual food that we eat, fungi are also widely used in the production of many foods and drinks. These include cheeses, beer and wine, bread, some cakes, and some soya bean products.

  While a great many wild fungi are edible, it can be difficult to correctly identify them. Some mushrooms are deadly if they are eaten. Fungi with names such as 'Destroying Angel' and 'Death Cap' give us some indication that it would not be a terribly good idea to eat them! In some countries, collecting wild mushrooms to eat is a popular activity. It is always wise to be totally sure that what you have collected is edible and not a poisonous look-a-like.

• Medicines

  Penicillin, perhaps the most famous of all antibiotic drugs, is derived from a common fungus called Penicillium. Many other fungi also produce antibiotic substances, which are now widely used to control diseases in human and animal populations. The discovery of antibiotics revolutionized health care worldwide.

  Some fungi which parasitise caterpillars have also been traditionally used as medicines. The Chinese have used a particular caterpillar fungus as a tonic for hundreds of years. Certain chemical compounds isolated from the fungus may prove to be useful treatments for certain types of cancer.

  A fungus which parasitises Rye crops causes a disease known as Ergot. The fungus can occur on a variety of grasses. It produces small hard structures, known as sclerotia. These sclerotia can cause poisoning in humans and animals which have eaten infected material. However, these same sclerotia are also the source of a powerful and important drug which has uses in childbirth.

• Biocontrol

  Fungi such as the Chinese caterpillar fungus, which parasitise insects, can be extremely useful for controlling insect pests of crops. The spores of the fungi are sprayed on the crop pests. Fungi have been used to control Colorado potato beetles, which can devastate potato crops. Spittlebugs, leaf hoppers and citrus rust mites are some of the other insect pests which have been controlled using fungi. This method is generally cheaper and less damaging to the environment than using chemical pesticides.

• Crop Diseases

  Fungal parasites may be useful in biocontrol, but they can also have enormous negative consequences for crop production. Some fungi are parasites of plants. Most of our common crop plants are susceptible to fungal attack of one kind or another. Spore production and dispersal is enormously efficient in fungi and plants of the same species crowded together in fields are ripe for attack. Fungal diseases can on occasion result in the loss of entire crops if they are not treated with antifungal agents.

• Animal Disease

  Fungi can also parasitise domestic animals causing diseases, but this is not usually a major economic problem. A wide range of fungi also live on and in humans, but most coexist harmlessly. Athletes foot and Candida infections are examples of human fungal infections.

• Food Spoilage

  It has already been noted that fungi play a major role in recycling organic material. The fungi which make our bread and jam go mouldy are only recycling organic matter, even though in this case, we would prefer that it didn't happen! Fungal damage can be responsible for large losses of stored food, particularly food which contains any moisture. Dry grains can usually be stored successfully, but the minute they become damp, moulds are likely to render them inedible. This is obviously a problem where large quantities of food are being produced seasonally and then require storage until they are needed.

hope that answers ur question

Answer 2

Fungi are one of the most important groups of organisms on the planet. This is easy to overlook, given their largely hidden, unseen actions and growth. They are important in an enormous variety of ways.

Answer 3

Fungi are heterotrohic organisms with thick chitin wall. Fungi finds a place in fermentation technology, antibiotic production, production of enzymes used in genetic engineering and other processes, bioactive production etc. Apart from these beneficial uses the fungi also produces many diseases and cause both animal and plant loss.

Answer 4

1. saprotrophs break down organic compounds. (fungi that leave on dead organic material)
2. mychorrizae -mutualistic relationship between fungi and the roots of plants. fungus supply water and minerals while the plants secrete organic compounds needed by fungus.
3. lichens play important role in soil formation

acidic soil -lichens turn to red color

alkaline soil -lichens turn to blue color

Answer 5

Fungi are important in a wide range of ways. First, they are nature's prime decomposers, because they feed with decaying organic material, reciclying wood, dead leaves, dead animals, soils, etc.

Historically have been a misconception about fungi, accusing them of being "bad guys". Just like bacteria, not all fungi are hazardous or produce diseases.

Products like beer, bread, wine, cheeses, medicines, enzymes, vitamins are products derived from fungal metabolism. Some fungi are edible (can be eaten), some fungi are psychotropic (produce hallucinations), some fungi are poisonous (like the famous Amanita muscaria, the fly mushroom). Nowdays, Biology have found a major range of uses to fungi, some are being used to repair contaminated -with heavy metals or pesticides- soils and water bodies, some are being used to nourish soils for agronomy, some are being used as biopesticides (a more natural way to control pests), yeasts are being used for biotechnological purpouses, like synthetizing enzymes, hormones and vitamins, food industry uses common molds in a non-hazardous phase to avoid bacterial contamination in their products. So, as you can see, they have many uses.

Besides, fungi are have adorable reproductive structures and are often called "earth flowers".

Answer 6

Well, fungi is an important part of the food industry as well as the medical industry. Also, there are many possible future uses for fungi, such as diesel producers, natural disaster fixers, and garbage disposing organisms. On a more military note, there are some strains of fungus that have been found to absorb neurotoxins, which may be useful for cleaning war zones of dangerous chemicals. A speculative and dangerous possibility could be that some day the militaries of the world could use genetically modified fungus to kill opposing soldiers, or destroying another countries foodstock

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Additionally, millions of years ago, fungi were less able to digest certain natural chemicals found in cell walls etc, because they were less evolved. This meant that at one time a lot of dead plant matter just piled up. Eventually this turned into fossil fuels - which as you can imagine played an extremely fundamental role in economics early on, and allowed industrial revolutions to occur, fueling development to the pace we are developing at now.

What's more is that, being a detritivor, something that essentially lives on dead matter, fungi contributes immensely to the nitrogen cycle as it decomposes things. As you probably know, a large amount of our air is composed of nitrogen, so it is important to keep this nitrogen cycle going efficiently. Plants need it; animals need it, and they eat plants; humans need it, and they get it from eating food. So the world's work force needs it (I don't think I need to say how this is economically important) and so does our environment.

Also, keep in mind the multiplier effect - in short, when the gain in GDP is several time more than the initial GDP spent. Fungi keeps environmentalists at work, and scientists doing research on them in work, and many more other occupations probably rely on it, leading to economic growth.

Answer 7

Many species of fungi are of economic importance in commercial agriculture. Some are used in the plastics industry and others are used to produce vitamins and organic acids.

Answer 8

They do nitrogen Fixation.