Trichoderma spp. are biotechnologically significant fungi, being widely used both in agriculture and industry. These microbes are also a potential drug source of clinical importance. In recent years, driven by advances in genetics and genomics, research on these fungi have opened new avenues for its varied applications. Divided into three sections, covering taxonomy and physiology, interactions with plants and applications and significance, this book also discusses topics that have seen rapid developments in the recent years. Various aspects of Trichoderma like molecular taxonomy, sexual and asexual developments, secondary metabolism, beneficial interactions with plants, applications as cell factories and harmful interactions with humans are discussed. This book, thus, hopes to be an essential ready reference for researchers, students and people form industry as well.

Fungi are the renowned eukaryotic organisms. They are heterotrophs like animals, plants and most of the bacteria and studied under the separate branch of science aMycology'. They are abundantly found worldwide as yeasts, moulds, mushrooms etc. Due to the discovery of the different types of fungi, their working styles, habitats, their growing style, culture, sources and optimum locality, fungi have been classified separately from the other eukaryotes like animal and plants. In modern time, there are a number of diseases known which have been caused by fungi but many more significant and useful functions of them are also known and well discovered. Their various positive roles in medicines, remediation, food industries, agriculture, paper and pulp industries, chemical industries, biological researches etc. make them highly significant objectives for researchers and scientists. They also secrete a number of biologically valuable enzymes which further enhance their utility in the field of biotechnology. Their worldwide distributions make them easily available for the research. A number of researches in the field of fungal biotechnology are currently running in order to explore their momentous properties related to their nutraceutical and pharmaceutical values. In this regard, the deep study of their detailed properties, sources, culture, secretion of enzymes, isolation techniques, characterization, kinetics etc. are highly required. Handy nature, very easy language, scientific writing style and advanced research materials of this book make this interesting and highly helpful for the readers and researchers of the field of life sciences, biochemistry and biotechnology to conduct their research. Students of undergraduate and post graduate courses of life sciences/biochemistry/biotechnology will also highly benefit from this book. This book has recent, descriptive as well as up to date information on the recent developments in the world of fungi in the form 17 chapters (divided in two sections: section A and section B) prepared by admirable scientific collaborations. Each chapter has been written by worldwide eminent experts of their scientific research fields. This book covered several valuable and promising topics: (i) Diversity, distribution and classification of fungi. (ii) Isolation, identification and characterization of fungi. (iii) Study of the fungal culture, growth, production, optimization etc. (iv) Rhizospheric fungi, endophytic fungi, lichens, pathogens and secondary metabolites. (v) Fungal properties and applications, biologically potential mushrooms, nutraceutical applications, pharmaceutical applications and bioconversions of wastes materials etc. (vi) Secretion of the different enzymes from fungi (vii) Fungal enzymes, their purification, characterization, kinetics, properties and applications in the field of biotechnology.

THE Handbook of Food Microbiological Analytical Methods includes 31 topics and experiments distributed throughout five chapters, namely basic microbial skills, the enumeration of different microorganisms in foods, identification techniques and determination of microbial activities. Besides, the handbook includes useful sources in food microbial analyses such as the Food Microbiology E-sources and the primers for identification of common microbial pathogens. This handbook aims to provide and develop concerning food microbial skills in the users with simple steps to follow along with the theoretical explanation for better understanding. The uniqueness of this handbook includes topics that are rarely addressed in current food microbiology manuals and handbooks such as the enumeration of special bacterial groups such as marine and Gram-positive bacteria, introducing: A selective medium for enumeration of Gram-positive bacteria from marine sources for the first time; a technique for bacterial colonies randomisation; a technique for recovery of injured/stressed bacteria; techniques to study bacterial potential such as spoiling foods; a technique that forms biogenic amines; and the production of antimicrobial activity and providing the specific specie primer pairs for common pathogens. The principles and procedures of some routinely used identification techniques namely vitek, sequencing of 16S rRNA gene and specific genus and specie primers for bacterial identification are provided with simple procedures. Enumeration and identification techniques of common pathogens and spoilers, namely Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacteriaceae, Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, Vibrio parahaemolyticu, Bacillus cereus and Shewanella putrefaciens enumeration and identification techniques are also covered. These techniques are based on the International Standards such as ISO and U.S. Food and Drug Administration Standards and the medias manufacture instructions. This handbook is needed to conduct microbial analyses to determine food microbial quality and safety, food hygienic status and the microbial potential to spoil food, lose food safety and produce antimicrobial activity. This handbook was prepared to be used by students and young researchers. Therefore, it can be used in the universities as a practical manual in biology, microbiology, food microbiology, food safety, and food hygiene courses, as well in food laboratories which determine food microbial safety and quality. It is expected that this handbook will be a good and practical guide for students and researchers as well.

This volume contains a series of contributions from established European researchers which consider aspects of molecular variability in fungal pathogens. Chapters are derived from a workshop held in Evian, France, in September 1997, supported by the EU Concerted Action Air 3-CT94-2448. The volume is divided into three sections. The first includes contributions which consider and review the major mechanisms involved, the second details specific studies on variability in populations of different fungal pathogens, and the third includes contributions on methods for interpreting such variability. The workshop was intended to bring together methods and understanding from a wide range of fungal pathogens, and this is reflected in the volume where individual contributions include case studies and reviews of populations of fungi pathogenic on insects and nematodes as well as plant and human pathogens. The combination of mechanisms, characterization and interpretation across a wide range of applied mycology makes this a significant general text for those working on molecular characterization. The broad spectrum of topics provides a multidisciplinary reference source within mycology and the book will be suitable for postgraduate students and research scientists in applied mycology, including plant pathology, medical mycology and biological control.