PNNL

Abstract

This special issue of Industrial Biotechnology is focused on fungi. Fungi play a diverse and important role in industrial biotechnology. The first US biotechnology patent was made in 1896 by Takamine for production of digestive enzymes by the fungus, Aspergillus oryzae (Bennett and Baker, 2008). The fact that this patent makes use of A. orzyae enzymes is especially fitting as this organism and other koji fungi have been used for centuries in the preparation of Asian foods and beverages that include but are not limited to soy sauce, miso and sake (Abe and Gomi, 2008). The first half of the 20th century saw industrial bioprocesses that used fungi for the production of organic acids and antibiotics. We continue to develop fungal systems for production of medicines, enzymes, biofuels and renewable chemistry (Baker et al., 2008; Grigoriev et al., 2011). In recent decades we have seen advances in fungal genetics, genomics and molecular biology. These advances, driven in part by the needs of industry in a number of areas have had profound implications for fungal biotechnology.