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Fungi have appeared, too, from time to time, in literature and art. Fungi create harm by spoiling food, destroying timber, and by causing diseases of crops, livestock, and humans. Fungi, mainly moulds like Penicillium and Aspergillus, spoil many stored foods. Fungi cause the majority of plant diseases, which in turn cause serious economic losses.
By decomposing these molecules, fungi play a critical role in the global carbon cycle. Fungi and other organisms traditionally recognized as fungi, such as oomycetes and myxomycetes (slime molds), often are economically and socially important, as some cause diseases of animals (including humans) and of plants. [10]
Medicinal fungi are fungi that contain metabolites or can be induced to produce metabolites through biotechnology to develop prescription drugs. Compounds successfully developed into drugs or under research include those treating infection with amoeba , bacteria , fungus , virus , inhibitors of cholesterol and ergosterol synthesis, and ...
Fungi are renowned for their poisons to deter animals from feeding on them: even today humans die from eating poisonous fungi. A natural consequence of this is the virtual absence of obligate vertebrate fungivores, with the diprotodont family Potoridae being the major exception.
Fungi help facilitate the nutrient cycle and carbon cycle, act as a food source for humans and animals, regulate animals populations, and contribute to the degradation of various pollutants. [3] Fungi are extremely diverse and take numerous approaches in providing these services through unique and complex ecological relationships.
[10] [11] [12] Livestock animals are raised for meat across the world; they include (2011) around 1.4 billion cattle, 1.2 billion sheep and 1 billion domestic pigs. [12] [13] [14] Plants provide the greater part of food for humans, and for their domestic animals. They have played a key role in the history of world civilizations.
Humans; carnivores; grazing animals Saprobiontic / saprophytic nutrition Organisms feed on dead organic remains of other organisms. Many fungi: Parasitic nutrition: Organisms obtain food from other living organisms (the host), with the host receiving no benefit from the parasite.
Beneficial insects can include predators (such as ladybugs) of pest insects, and pollinators (such as bees, which are an integral part of the growth cycle of many crops).). Increasingly certain species of insects are managed and used to intervene where natural pollination or biological control is insufficient, usually due to human disturbance of the balance of established ecosys