Fungal cell walls: Their structure, biosynthesis and biotechnological aspects

Abstract

The article briefly reviews the present knowledge on various aspects of fungal cell wall structure, function and biosynthesis of its individual components. A special attention is devoted to biotechnological potential of cell walls and cell-wall linked phenomena.

Antioxidant properties of fungal chitosan from shiitake stipes

“…Because chitin and chitosan possesses many beneficially biological properties such as antimicrobial activity (Kobayashi, Watanabe, Suzuki, & Suzuki, 1990;Tokoro et al, 1989), biocompatibility, biodegradability, haemostatic activity, and woundhealing property, much attention has been paid to its biomedical applications (Farkas, 1990;Fleet & Phaff, 1981). Furthermore, antioxidant properties of chitosan derivatives have been studied (Lin & Chou, 2004;Xie, Xu, & Liu, 2001;Xing et al, 2005).…”

Selected physical properties of chitin prepared from shiitake stipes

“…However, g-chitin has a parallel and antiparallel structure, which is a combination of a-and b-chitin (Jang et al, 2004). Because chitin possesses many beneficially biological properties such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, hemostatic activity, and woundhealing property, much attention has been paid to its biomedical applications (Farkas, 1990;Fleet & Phaff, 1981).…”

In Vitro Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activity of Chitosan Isolated from Podophthalmus Vigil

“…However, γ-chitin found in the cell walls of fungi has a mixture of parallel and antiparallel chains, which is a combination of α-chitin and β-chitin (Jang et al 2004). Because chitin and chitosan possesses many beneficially biological properties such as antimicrobial activity (Kobayashi et al 1990;Tokoro et al 1989), biocompatibility, biodegradability, haemostatic activity and wound healing property, much attention has been paid to its biomedical applications (Farkas 1990;Fleet and Phaff 1981). Due to these unique properties, chitosan and its derivatives have been proposed for applications in biomedical, food, agriculture, biotechnology and pharmaceutical fields (Felse and Panda 1999;Kumar 2000;Shahidi et al 1999).…”