produced byMortierella alpinaPeyronel and
M. alliaceaLinnem. using glucose or waste
glycerol, a byproduct of biodiesel production,
as the carbon source(Jermsuntiea et al. 2011 ;
Khanna et al. 2011 ).
Biodiesel can be made from several plant
oils (rapeseed, soybean, sunflower) that are
high in fatty acid methyl esters. A comparison
was made of the biodiesel produced from rape-
seed oil and Cunninghamella echinulata
(Thaxt.) Thaxt. ex Blakeslee, and they both con-
formed to European standards (Sergeeva et al.
2011 ). M. alpina and species of Rhizopus,
Umbelopsis, and Zygorhynchus have been
used to produce lipids that are precursors for
biodiesel production (Kosa and Ragauskas
2011 ). Micro-Raman spectroscopy has been
used to determine the composition and degree
of saturation of hyphal oil inM. alpinaandM.
elongataLinnem. (Mu ̈nchberg et al. 2012 ); this
procedure may be useful for screening other
fungi for fatty acid production.
Members of Mucorales, including species
ofCunninghamellaandRhizopus, have been
used forthebiosorptionof polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons and treatment of textile waste
water (Tigini et al. 2011 ).Species ofCunning-
hamellahave been used for biotransformation
(Amadio et al. ( 2010 ) and to simulate mamma-
lian physiology in studies of drug metabolism
(Asha and Vidyavathi 2009 ). Endosulfan, an
insecticide with a long half-life in soil, has
been degraded by Mortierella sp. (Kataoka
et al. 2011 ).
E. Mucorales and Endobacteria
Early studies ofRhizopusrice seedling blight
(Mew and Gonzalez 2002 ) initially concentrated
on the fungus because an endobacterium was
not known to be present. Partida-Martinez and
Hertweck ( 2006 ) discovered that Rhizopus
microsporusTiegh. also contained a toxin (rhi-
zonin) producing the endosymbiotic bacterium
Berkholderia rhizoxinica Partida-Martinez, I.
Groth, I. Schmitt, W. Richer, M. Roth, & C.
Hertweck (Partida-Martinez et al. 2007a, b).
Later, Chamilos et al. ( 2007 ) hypothesized that
the emergence of zygomycosis might be due to
the presence of endosymbiotic bacteria that con-
ferred multidrug resistance, but endosymbiots
were not present in the clinical isolates ofRhizo-
pus; the fungi were the pathogens (Partida-
Martinez et al. 2008 ). A strain ofR. microsporus
used in Sufu production contained a toxin-
forming endosymbiotic bacterium, and the
hyphae of four stains ofMortierella elongata
contained endotoxin-forming betaproteobac-
teria (Rohm et al. 2010 ;Satoetal. 2010 ).F. LightThe photobiology of many fungi, including
Phycomyces blakesleeanusBurgeff,has been
studied(Corrochano and Galland 2006 ;Cor-
rochano and Garre 2010 ). The sporangio-
phores ofP. blakesleeanusare influenced by
air movement, gravity, light, touch, and the
presence of close structures. Light induces
the production of both macro- and microspor-
angiophores; blue light stimulates only macro-
sporangiophore formation. Light is also
important in the production of mycelialb-car-
otene, which is the precursor of the sexual
pheromone trisporic acid (Schimek and Wo ̈s-
temeyer 2006 ).
All species ofPilobolusperiodically form
sporangia in alternating light and dark. The
various taxa have differing light requirements
for the production of trophocysts, sporangio-
phores, and sporangia; trophocysts always pre-
cede the formation of sporangiophores in both
Pilobolus andUtharomyces(Kirk and Benny
1980 ; Page 1962 ). In one study, light did not
have an effect on sporulation, whereas the type
of medium used was important inB. trispora
sporangia and sporangiola formation (Goldring
1936 ).C. cucurbitarum, however, forms more
sporangiola after 8 h of continuous light, and a
temperature of 31C stimulated formation of
sporangia, but at 25C fewer of these structures
were produced (Barnett and Lilly 1950 ).G. MatingTrisporic acid formation during sexual repro-
duction has been observed in members ofZygomycetous Fungi: Phylum Entomophthoromycota and Subphyla Kickxellomycotina,... 213