Abstract
Originally placed among the plants, fungi are in reality more closely related to animals. They are the only microorganisms with chitin on their cell wall. As saprophytes they are essential in degrading organic matter”, they interact with almost all vascular plants, and can be “trans-kingdom pathogens” as well. They also produce enzymes and secondary metabolites, which are essential to the pharmaceutical and to the food industry. Besides antibiotics, common foods require the assistance of fungi. In cheeses fungi “produce flavors and cause desirable changes in texture and appearance of the finished products”. Molds are “critical in the production of safe and high quality products such as salami and hams”. Although some molds produce dangerous toxins, the vast majority of fungi are considered beneficial and indispensable to the agricultural- food- continuum.
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Notes
- 1.
The Monera are usually and generally now called “Procaryotae ” or prokaryotes .
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Zaccheo, A., Palmaccio, E., Venable, M., Locarnini-Sciaroni, I., Parisi, S. (2017). The Fungi and Other Eukaryotic Microbes. In: Food Hygiene and Applied Food Microbiology in an Anthropological Cross Cultural Perspective. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44975-3_6
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