ABSTRACT

This chapter reviews recent advances in bioprocessing, properties, and applications of fungal bioproducts, with emphasis on fungal polysaccharides, organic acids—primarily citric acid—and mycoprotein. These bioproducts are produced commercially by submerged cultures of fungi in bioreactors and have several industrial applications in the food and chemicals industry, as well as in pharmaceuticals. Fungal polysaccharides include pullulan, which can form transparent edible films and coatings while being inherently antimicrobial, anti-allergenic, and potentially prebiotic. Scleroglucan is another fungal polysaccharide, used mainly as a viscosifier for improved oil recovery and other applications, and numerous mushroom polysaccharides possess immunostimulatory properties and other important beneficial health effects. The biosynthesis, fermentative production, and downstream processing of these fungal biopolymers are described in the first part of the chapter. Citric acid is another major biotechnological fungal bioproduct, produced industrially since the early twentieth century, that is used as a common acidifier in foods and pharmaceuticals. Its biosynthetic pathway and bioprocessing optimization using two different fungi, Aspergillus niger and Yarrowia lipolytica, are discussed and compared in this chapter.