Sunflower oil poured onto compost in November induced massive growth of Mortierella species. Mortierella hyaline was isolated into culture at 4 or 18 °C on weak media but not at 23-25 °C or on 2% malt agar. It grew well on olive oil agar, with its hyphae aggregating inside oil drops. The nature of nutrients utilized in normal soils and composts by Mortierella is not known but lipid levels there would appear to be low. Many Mortierella species are able to convert diverse carbon sources into lipids and are thus known as oleaginous fungi. Their biotechnological applications are briefly discussed.

Fungal pathogens are using several mechanisms to circumvent the inhibitory actions of antifungal drugs. The variety of these mechanisms was revealed in recent years by several laboratories with molecular approaches. Besides the identification of genes involved in antifungal drug resistance and the discovery of alternative pathways of resistance (i.e. biofilm formation), novel concepts in the understanding of the survival of fungal pathogen in the presence of antifungal drug (antifungal tolerance) have emerged.

Some of the participants at the 2001 world model airplane championship contest in Lost Hills, California, took home more than suntans and souvenirs. One participant from the UK and one from Finland became very ill with a flu-like pulmonary disease. They had been infected with Coccidioides immitis, a fungus endemic to the Californian deserts and a few other similar sites in the New World. Their illness, coccidioidomycosis (also known colloquially and historically as Valley Fever, San Joaquin Valley Fever and Gilchrist's Disease) is a mycosis with a rich and remarkable history.

The two previous parts to this review have emphasised the relatively small number of mould toxins, associated with the mould genera Penicillium, Aspergillus and Fusarium, which may have the greatest impact in the context of human foods. There are, however, a large number of toxic mould metabolites, produced by a diverse range of other mould genera, with an extraordinary diversity of chemical structure and biological activity. The chemical structures are fascinating and worth studying because they provide clues about biosynthetic pathways and possible biological activity. The moulds producing them occur in a wide range of ecological niches from endophytes, obligate plant pathogens to saprophytes. This diversity will be explored from two points of view – damp houses and animal pastures.

Filamentous fungi such as Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus oryzae, and Trichoderma reesei are able to produce and secrete large concentrations of enzymes (e.g. amylases, proteases, cellulases) into the environment. Increasingly, these species and a few others are being used to produce recombinant proteins, particularly proteins of fungal origin (Table 1). For producing recombinant proteins (which may be a protein which the host organism already makes, i.e. an homologous protein, or a new, i.e. heterologous, protein), filamentous fungi offer the advantages of possessing an efficient secretion system, being able to glycosylate proteins and having higher specific growth rates than plant, insect or mammalian cells. Although the filamentous growth form causes more difficulties for mixing and aeration than does the unicellular growth form of yeast and bacteria, efficient fermentation technologies have been developed for antibiotic, organic acid and native enzyme production from filamentous fungi.

Anyone who followed the developing epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in the media would be in little doubt as to the threat posed by new and unexpected diseases. Whilst the general public is probably more familiar with the various ′exotic′ viruses that have emerged in the past thirty years, medical mycology also has its own share of important emergent pathogens. In a regional context the most important of these is Penicillium marneffei Segratin et. al. – the causative agent of penicilliosis. This has become a very important complication in AIDS patients in large parts of the Far East, particularly in Thailand, Southern China and Hong Kong. Unlike more familiar fungal pathogens, such as Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus, P. marneffei has only a short history – indeed it was first described as recently as the mid-1950s.

This photograph appeared in the Cambridge Evening News in September 2002 under the caption: “Giant … the garden's Jane Grimes with a Rigidoporus ulmarius nearly 5 m in circumference”. This reminded me that I had earlier been shown another very large specimen of this fungus in Kew Gardens. On contacting Alick Henrici as to this specimen in July 2003, he informed me that the Kew fungus had appeared some years ago in the Guinness Book of Records. In the 1995 edition of this work it was entered as the Largest Tree Fungus, measuring (in 1992) 150 x 144 cm with a circumference of 454 cm, and in the 1999 edition, measured in 1995, the size was recorded as 163 x 140 cm with a circumference of 480 cm. This meant that the Cambridge specimen might be of world class, so Jane, with arborist David Franklin and myself forthwith went to measure it. Our results showed it a worthy contender but less large at 150 x 133 cm diameter and 425 cm circumference.