Abstract
BackgroundProcesses and products employing filamentous fungi are increasing contributors to biotechnology. These organisms are used as cell factories for the synthesis of platform chemicals, enzymes, acids, foodstuffs and therapeutics. More recent applications include processing biomass into construction or textile materials. These exciting advances raise several interrelated questions regarding the contributions of filamentous fungi to biotechnology. For example, are advances in this discipline a major contributor compared to other organisms, e.g. plants or bacteria? From a geographical perspective, where is this work conducted? Which species are predominantly used? How do biotech companies actually use these organisms?ResultsTo glean a snapshot of the state of the discipline, literature (bibliometry) and patent (patentometry) outputs of filamentous fungal applications and the related fields were quantitatively surveyed. How these outputs vary across fungal species, industrial application(s), geographical locations and biotechnological companies were analysed. Results identified (i) fungi as crucial drivers for publications and patents in biotechnology, (ii) enzyme and organic acid production as the main applications, (iii) Aspergillus as the most commonly used genus by biotechnologists, (iv) China, the United States, Brazil, and Europe as the leaders in filamentous fungal science, and (v) the key players in industrial biotechnology.ConclusionsThis study generated a summary of the status of filamentous fungal applications in biotechnology. Both bibliometric and patentometric data have identified several key trends, breakthroughs and challenges faced by the fungal research community. The analysis suggests that the future is bright for filamentous fungal research worldwide.
Highlights
Processes and products employing filamentous fungi are increasing contributors to biotechnology
Research on filamentous fungi grew comparably to plants and bacteria, the latter two organisms containing well-established cell factories to produce an extremely diverse and valuable product portfolio, including vaccines, medicines, food, platform chemicals, industrial enzymes and many other molecules. This analysis revealed that research utilising protozoa and viruses grew less in literature outputs than other cohorts, an observation that further highlights the relative importance of filamentous fungi in biotechnological research
In this work we conducted quantitative analysis of literature and patent data repositories to generate a snapshot of the state of filamentous fungal science in biotechnology
Summary
Processes and products employing filamentous fungi are increasing contributors to biotechnology. When combined with the propensity to secrete various industrially used organic acids and bioactive secondary metabolites, including but not limited to beta-lactam antibiotics, filamentous fungi are powerful components of the emerged and expanding biotechnological revolution [7, 8]. Several molecules from this growing product portfolio [e.g. citric acid (used as a flavouring agent, cleaning product and platform chemical), the enzyme glucoamylase (used to breakdown starch in the food industry) and statins (used to reduce cholesterol in humans)] constitute growing, multimillion-dollar industries each year [3]
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