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In Context
- Recently, an analytical study of medicinal fungi carried out by researchers from the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai (IMSc), shows that some chemicals they secrete may find use as novel drugs.
About
- They used a database, MeFSAT (Medicinal Fungi Secondary Metabolites And Therapeutics), which compiles information on 184 medicinal fungi, including mushrooms.
- Medicinal fungi belong to two taxonomic divisions namely, basidiomycota and ascomycota.
- Mushrooms belong to the basidiomycota division.
- An example is Agaricus bisporus, the button mushroom, which can be consumed.
- Fungi belonging to the ascomycota division are generally not mushrooms.
- Among these are Isaria cicadae and Shiraia bambusicola which are used in traditional Chinese medicine.
Significance
- Secondary metabolites are chemical compounds that fungi produce when they are stressed.
- These are not strictly essential and hence the name ‘secondary’.
- They enhance the fungus’ ability to survive.
- The work has been published in the preprint server BioRXiv.
- Cordycepin, a secondary metabolite produced by Cordyceps species of fungus, is known to have anti-tumour properties.
Source:TH
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