ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Review Article | Open Access
Babita Thakur1, Sukhminderjit Kaur2, Ranjan Singh3, Sangram Singh4 and Manikant Tripathi5
1University Center for Research and Development, Chandigarh University, Gharuan, Mohali, Punjab, India.
2Department of Biotechnology, University Institute of Biotechnology, Chandigarh University, Mohali, Punjab, India.
3Department of Microbiology, Dr. Rammanohar Lohia Avadh University, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India.
4Department of Biochemistry, Dr. Rammanohar Lohia Avadh University, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India.
5Biotechnology Program, Dr. Rammanohar Lohia Avadh University, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Article Number: 11799 | © The Author(s). 2026
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2026;20(3):1953-1977. https://doi.org/10.22207/JPAM.20.3.24
Received: 14 May 2026 | Accepted: 11 July 2026 | Published online: 01 August 2026
Issue online: September 2026
Abstract

Fungal cell factories serve as a robust platform for sustainable biomanufacturing, owing to their unparalleled metabolic diversity, enzymatic properties, and resilience to diverse environmental conditions. Recent advances in fungal biotechnology have vastly enhanced the potential for fungi to be used in the production of renewable bioenergy and functional biomaterials. Concurrent advances in systems biology, metabolic engineering, and synthetic biology have enabled the fine-tuning of metabolic fluxes to facilitate the enhanced biosynthesis of biofuels, including bioethanol, biodiesel, biogas, and biohydrogen, as well as mycelium-derived biopolymers. The lignocellulolytic fungi like Trichoderma reesei, Aspergillus niger, and Phanerochaete chrysosporium have been the main organisms of focus with respect to engineering, which enhances hydrolytic enzyme excretion, growth on substrates, and redox balance in these fungi. This engineering work parallels a new ability in omics technologies and CRISPR–Cas genome editing, permitting the facilitation and identification of regulation of biosynthetic gene clusters responsible for lipid accumulation, secondary metabolite production, and nanomaterial synthesis in fungi. Furthermore, new fungal-derived biomaterials have been reported, such as chitosan, β-glucans, and mycelium composites, which have been advanced as biodegradable alternatives to plastics and building materials derived from petroleum. This review critically reviews some of the more recent developments in respect of the reprogramming of fungal metabolism, process intensification strategies and integrated biorefinery applications. This will illustrate the convergence of fungal systems biology with the principles of circular bioeconomy and point out the technological, economic, and regulatory bottlenecks which need to be overcome to fully realise the potential of fungi as the biofactories of the future for the sustainable production of energy and materials.

Keywords

Fungal Biotechnology, Metabolic Engineering, Synthetic Biology, CRISPR–Cas, Bioenergy, Biopolymers, Mycelium Materials

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© The Author(s) 2026. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.