Fungi have the ability to transform organic materials into a rich and diverse set of useful products and provide distinct opportunities for tackling the urgent challenges before all humans. Fungal biotechnology can advance the transition from our petroleum-based economy into a bio-based circular economy and has the ability to sustainably produce resilient sources of food, feed, chemicals, fuels, textiles, and materials for construction, automotive and transportation industries, for furniture and beyond. Fungal biotechnology offers solutions for securing, stabilizing and enhancing the food supply for a growing human population, while simultaneously lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Fungal biotechnology has, thus, the potential to make a significant contribution to climate change mitigation and meeting the United Nation's sustainable development goals through the rational improvement of new and established fungal cell factories. The White Paper presented here is the result of the 2nd Think Tank meeting held by the EUROFUNG consortium in Berlin in October 2019. This paper highlights discussions on current opportunities and research challenges in fungal biotechnology and aims to inform scientists, educators, the general public, industrial stakeholders and policymakers about the current fungal biotech revolution.

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The toheroa (Paphies ventricosa) is an Aotearoa (New Zealand) endemic surf clam that remains threatened following population collapse due to overfishing in the twentieth century. Despite protective measures being in place for more than 4 decades, toheroa populations have inexplicably failed to recover. As part of an investigation into the possible role of disease in preventing their recovery, an exploration of the bacterial composition in toheroa was conducted over their entire geographic range. The bacterial composition in toheroa tissues was dominated by Spirochaetaceae, Mycoplasmataceae, and Endozoicomonadaceae, and varied at both large (between geographically separated sites) and small spatial scales (beds < 10 km apart). At small scales, it was habitat, in this case the presence or absence of freshwater outflows, which appeared to be a major influence on bacterial composition. Given that the decline of toheroa has also coincided with changes in land use that have reduced the amount of freshwater reaching the toheroa beaches, it is possible that habitat-related shifts in the abundance of certain bacterial symbionts are affecting the health and impeding recovery of this iconic and culturally significant species.

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The toheroa Paphies ventricosa is a large Aotearoa New Zealand (ANZ) endemic surf clam of cultural importance to many Māori, the Indigenous people of ANZ. Extensive commercial and recreational harvesting in the 20th century dramatically reduced populations, leading to the collapse and closure of the fishery. Despite being protected for >40 yr, toheroa have inexplicably failed to recover. In 2017, intracellular microcolonies (IMCs) of bacteria were detected in ‘sick’ toheroa in northern ANZ. Numerous mass mortality events (MMEs) have recently been recorded in ANZ shellfish, with many events linked by the presence of IMCs resembling Rickettsia-like organisms (RLOs). While similar IMCs have been implicated in MMEs in surf clams elsewhere, the impact of these IMCs on the health or recovery of toheroa is unknown. A critical first step towards understanding the significance of a pathogen in a host population is pathogen identification and characterisation. To begin this process, we examined 16S rRNA gene sequences of the putative IMCs from 4 toheroa populations that showed 97% homology to Endozoicomonas spp. sequences held in GenBank. Phylogenetic analysis identified closely related Endozoicomonas strains from the North and South Island, ANZ, and in situ hybridization, using 16S rRNA gene probes, confirmed the presence of the sequenced IMC gene in the gill and digestive gland tissues of toheroa. Quantitative PCR revealed site-specific and seasonal abundance patterns of Endozoicomonas spp. in toheroa populations. Although implicated in disease outbreaks elsewhere, the role of Endozoicomonas spp. within the ANZ shellfish mortality landscape remains uncertain.

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diabetes-specific tool, in order to provide early and preventative psychological interventions for those at risk, and active management strategies for identified sufferers, including the provision of dual medical and mental health inpatient facilities for those most affected.