ABSTRACT
Thermophilic fungi are ubiquitous in their occurrence in thermogenic as well as nonthermogenic environments and have been recovered from an array of habitats. Generally, there is an inverse relationship between biological diversity and the amount of adaptation required to survive in a specific habitat. Owing to their unusual growth at elevated temperatures, approximately 75 species of truly thermophilic fungi have been reported by various workers all over the world and account for barely 0.1% of the total fungal species known to exist. In the past, thermophilic fungi have been isolated from a large variety of habitats, both natural and man-made, including manure, composts, stored grains, bird feathers and nests, industrial coal mine soils, beach sands, nuclear reactor effluents, Dead Sea valley soils, and desert soils. This chapter presents an overview of the diversity of thermophilic fungi found in a variety of these habitats. It also explores an unanticipated number of thermophilic fungi within thermal environments that are marked by direct microscopic observation, 16S rDNA amplification, and other culture-independent techniques, indicating that there are many more thermophilic fungi that are yet to be cultivated in the laboratory.
