Edible and Medicinal Macrofungi
Rui-Lin Zhao
Abstract
Macrofungi are well known as mushrooms, which belong mostly to Basidiomycota with a few from Ascomycota, and up to now, around 40,000 species have been described. In people's lives, macrofungi are closely related to our economic activities, especially for food and medicine. "One meat, one vegetable and one mushroom" has become a healthy and fashionable dietary structure, and the global edible mushroom production and cultivating area are steadily rising. On the other hand, a large number of mushroom species and new active components have been found, and have become one of the driving forces of innovation of drugs and health products, especially with the development of biochemistry, enzyme engineering, and genetic engineering. Thus, macrofungi in food, medicine, and other aspects have shown a broad prospect. In this Special Issue, research on new species and related molecular phylogenies, mechanisms of hyphae polar growing and basidiocarp formation, biochemistry of edible and medical mushrooms, and some important scientific questions related to the edible mushroom industry are presented, which also reflect the hot areas of common concern on edible and medicinal fungi.