ABSTRACT
As humans developed from a hunter–gatherer and somewhat nomadic lifestyle, they created structures to provide shelter. Over time, and with our social behavior, aggregations of these shelters became hamlets, villages, towns, and now the modern cities and urban sprawl we see today. These large urban areas are now a major part of the landscape and have their own environment and ecology, which can be considered distinct from other more natural environments. As fungi are ubiquitous, it is no surprise that they play a significant role in this “built environment” as both saprotrophs and pathogens. The use of natural materials for the construction of buildings, the fact that we still gather (from the supermarket) our food supplies and store them in our homes, and that we shed body parts (skin and hair), from ourselves and pets, means that there are plenty of resources available in this built environment for fungi to grow (Shadzi et al., 2002). As a result of this fungal growth, our food supply can be reduced by spoilage and the production of fungal spores, and volatile secondary metabolites can affect our health through pathogenicity, allergies, and reduced function because of “sick building syndrome.”
