Plastic has become established over the world as an essential basic need for our daily life. Current global plastic production exceeds 300 million tons annually. Plastics have many characteristics such as low production costs, inertness, relatively low weight, and durability. The primary disadvantage of plastics is their extremely slow natural degradation. The latter results in an accumulation of plastic waste in nature. The amount of plastic waste as of 2015 was 6300 million tons worldwide, and 79% of this was placed in landfills or left in the natural environment. Moreover, recent estimates report that 12,000 million tons of plastic waste will have been accumulated on the earth by 2050. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an effective plastic biodegradation process to accelerate the natural degradation rate of plastics. More than 400 microbes have been identified as capable of plastic degradation. This is the first paper of the series on plastic-degrading fungi. This paper provides a summary of the current global production of plastic and plastic waste accumulation in nature. A list is given of all the plastic-degrading fungi recorded thus far, based on the available literature, and comments are made relating to the major fungal groups. In addition, the phylogenetic relationships of plastic-degrading fungi were analyzed using a combined ITS, LSU, SSU, TEF, RPB1, and RPB2 dataset consisting of 395 strains. Our results confirm that plastic-degrading fungi are found in eleven classes in the fungal phyla Ascomycota (Dothideomycetes, Eurotiomycetes, Leotiomycetes, Saccharomycetes, and Sordariomycetes), Basidiomycota (Agaricomycetes, Microbotryomycetes, Tremellomycetes, Tritirachiomycetes, and Ustilaginomy-cetes), and Mucoromycota (Mucoromycetes). The taxonomic placement of plastic-degrading fungal taxa is briefly discussed. The Eurotiomycetes include the largest number of plastic degraders in the kingdom Fungi. The results presented herein are expected to influence the direction of future research on similar topics in order to find effective plastic-degrading fungi that can eliminate plastic wastes. The next publication of the series on plastic-degrading fungi will be focused on major metabolites, degradation pathways, and enzyme production in plastic degradation by fungi.

Agarwood is a fragrant dark resin produced in plants belonging to the family Thyme-laeaceae and which has a high economic value. The unique fragrance and medicinal applications intensify the value of agarwood. The wild populations of agarwood trees are highly threatened by high economic demand. Therefore, it is worthwhile to develop an artificial agarwood induction technology for the countries that rely on agarwood from the natural habitat of the plants. Fungal induction of agarwood has been shown to be an efficient method. Interestingly, most of the fungi known from agarwood are endophytic. In this paper, we supplement and update the bioactivity of fungi associated with agarwood and their ability to induce agarwood formation. According to the existing literature, 59 endophytic fungal strains of 16 genera induce agarwood production, most of which belong to Fusarium (28 identified strains). Hence, Fusarium is a good candidate for further studies on fungal induced agarwood production.

Large phosphate ores are located in Southwest China. Mining activities have led to serious degradation facing surrounding ecosystem, which hinders regional sustainable development. Re-vegetation is considered the ideal treatment to cope with this issue. Alnus nepalensis is considered the suitable tree species for restoration across mining sites, giving its N-fixing capacity and good adaptability. However, the growth of A. nepalensis seedling seems limited in phosphate abandoned land. In order to clarify the responses (phosphorus contents distribution and photosynthesis) of A. nepalensis seedling under high soil phosphorus stress, pot experiment was conducted. The results showed that higher soil phosphorus level leads to higher phosphorus concentrations observed in all organs of seedlings. In contract, A. nepalensis seedling’s respiration rate, stomatal conductance and photosynthetic rate, all the photosynthetic parameters decreased. It found the phenomenon that phosphorus content of leaves, roots, soil and stem were negatively correlated with those photosynthetic parameters, but clear causal metabolism pathway still needs further study. Anyway, extremely high phosphorus level would inhibit the photosynthesis, and even the growth of A. nepalensis seedling, corresponding strategy is needed when we use A. nepalensis to recover phosphate abandoned land.

Fruits are one of the major economic commodities worldwide and postharvest rot diseases is one of the major problems that led to decreasing fruit production. Fungal contaminants reduce the quality of fresh fruits after harvest and it is one of the leading causes of economic loss in global fresh fruits. The purpose of this research was to isolate and identify pathogens causing postharvest rots on common fruits available in markets in Panlong District, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China. The fruits viz. apple (Malus domestica), dragon fruit (Hylocereus undatus), peach (Amygdalus persica) and pear (Pyrus sorotina) were selected to examine post-harvest rots since they are commonly available fruits in Yunnan markets. We isolated six fungal strains from the above-mentioned fruits. The pathogenicity tests and phylogenetic analyses were carried out for the fungi isolated from fruits. Our results showed that Fusarium spp. are common on apple, peach and dragon fruit. In the pathogenicity test, Monilinia yunnanensis inoculated on the pear had the strongest effect on the pear, and the disease spot expanded over half of the total area of the fruit. Our results are expected to provide a reference and basis for preventing postharvest diseases of common fruits in Yunnan.