Fungal metabolic diversity

Fungi are among the most commonly disseminated microorganisms in nature. Due to that, fungi are continuously challenged by fast changes in the environmental conditions, such as oxygen limitation and variation on nutrient abundance. To survive, fungi, therefore, produce a range of enzymes to degrade homo- and heteropolysaccharides. To control this machinery, fungi developed a fine regulation in metabolism by applying different strategies to transport nutrients and a rapid response using transcriptional factors. Fungal strains of different genus are also well-known producers of secondary metabolites for agrochemical and pharmacology applications. Due to the commercial importance, the genomes of many fungi have been sequenced completely, and the organisms have been studied in detail by functional genomics and molecular biochemistry. In this chapter, we will discuss the carbohydrate metabolism, molecule transport, energetic and secondary metabolism and some aspects of transcription factors in wide studies of fungi models. Finally, we will discuss the metabolic diversity of human pathogenic fungi using the dermatophyte fungus Trichophyton rubrum as a model in sensing of nutrients and environmental changes. The accumulated knowledge allows a better understanding of the metabolic diversity among different fungi, which is important for biotechnology and medical mycology.