“…Freshwater fungi and fungus-like organisms are key decomposers of organic material, playing an important role in nutrient cycling, bioremediation, and ecosystem functioning. Aquatic fungi can metabolize organic xenobiotics (Baker et al, 2019;Miglani et al, 2022), plastic polymers (Zeghal et al, 2021;Srikanth et al, 2022), heavy metals, dyes, industrial chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and pharmaceuticals such as diclofenac (Assad et al, 2021). Most fungi (including the fungus-like oomycetes) feed by osmotrophy.…”