ABSTRACT
Despite their potential use in industrial processes, studies on thermophilic fungi have been neglected until recently. Moreover, with the paradigm shift in industry as it moves from fossil fuels toward renewable resource utilization, the need for microbial biocatalysts is envisaged to increase, and undoubtedly there will be an unrelenting and increased need for thermostable selective biocatalysts in the near future. Further prospects on fungal distribution and mapping are challenging due to the lack of sufficient knowledge about their taxonomy and the lack of expert mycologists around the world. This chapter unveils the future prospects relating to the diversity, taxonomy, phylogeny, genome-wide study, and biotechnological applications of thermophilic fungi.
