Fungal Lipid Biochemistry

With the development of highly sophisticated analytical techniques and instrumentation during the past 15-20 years, progress in the field of lipid biochemistry has been greatly accelerated. Within this period, there has been an increasing volume of information concerning the distribution and metabolism of lipids in animals and, more recently, in plants. The fungi have played an important role in studies concerning the biochemistry of lipids and, in this text, they are treated separately from the photosynthetic plants. This book is concerned with distribution and bio- chemistry of lipids in fungi. The text is divided into three sections, beginning with an introduction to fungallipids which includes total lipid abundances in fungal cells and cell fractions and cultural conditions influencing lipid production. In the second section, each chapter deals with the distribution andjor metabolism of a single lipid class as it occurs in fungi. Comparisons with plants and animals are also included. Six major lipid classes are covered which include the aliphatic hydrocarbons, fatty acids, sterols, triacylglycerols, glycerophosphatides, and sphingolipids. The third section contains two chapters concerned with the physiology and ultrastructure of fungal spore formation and germination with particular emphasis on lipids. Although this book is not intended to be a comprehensive review of the literature, the information presented is compiled from over 1000 articles, most of which were published during the past 10-12 years.