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Anaerobic Gut Fungi—A Biotechnological Perspective

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Advances in Animal Biotechnology

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Abstract

The ruminants are herbivorous animals that thrive on fibrous roughage, plant foliage, crop, and agro-industrial by-products. The microbiome present in alimentary tract of herbivores serves as an efficient system for saccharification and fermentation of ingested plant biomass and converts it into microbial proteins, ammonia, short-chain organic acids, and gases such as CO2, H2, and CH4. While early studies had focused on anaerobic fungi because of their unusual metabolism and biology, in current perspective, the anaerobic fungi are viewed for potential hydrolytic genes and enzymes biotechnological applications.

Highlights

  • Anaerobic gut fungi inhabit rumen and cecum of mammalian and reptile herbivores

  • The gut fungi secrete enzymes that are superior to those from fibrolytic bacteria

  • The enzymes of anaerobic fungi in view of their ability to utilize multiple substrates have industrial applications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Regional Station, Palampur, India

    Birbal Singh & Gorakh Mal

  2. Department of Biotechnology, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Haryana, India

    Sanjeev K. Gautam

  3. Department of Animal Biotechnology, ICAR-National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, Karnal, Haryana, India

    Manishi Mukesh

Authors
  1. Birbal Singh
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  2. Gorakh Mal
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  3. Sanjeev K. Gautam
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  4. Manishi Mukesh
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Correspondence to Birbal Singh .

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Singh, B., Mal, G., Gautam, S.K., Mukesh, M. (2019). Anaerobic Gut Fungi—A Biotechnological Perspective. In: Advances in Animal Biotechnology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21309-1_3

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