Recent advances in the intellectual property landscape of filamentous fungi
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ungal Biology and Biotechnology Open Access
REVIEW
Recent advances in the intellectual property landscape of filamentous fungi Silvia Hüttner1,2* , Anton Johansson1, Paulo Gonçalves Teixeira1, Puck Achterberg1,3 and Ramkumar B. Nair1
Abstract For centuries, filamentous fungi have been used in the making of food and beverages, and for decades for the production of enzymes and pharmaceuticals. In the last decades, the intellectual property (IP) landscape for fungal technology has seen an ever increasing upward trend, introducing new and promising applications utilising fungi. In this review, we highlight fungi-related patent applications published during the last 5 years (2015–2020), identify the key players in each field, and analyse future trends. New developments in the field of fungal technology include the increased use of filamentous fungi as a food source (mycoprotein), using fungi as biodegradable materials, in wastewater treatment, in integrated biorefineries and as biological pest agents. Biotechnology companies in Europe and the US are currently leading when it comes to the number of patents in these areas, but Asian companies and research institutes, in particular in China, are becoming increasingly important players, for example in pesticide formulation and agricultural practices. Keywords: Intellectual property, Filamentous fungi, Patents, Biotechnology Introduction Filamentous fungi
Fungi are eukaryotic organisms that have characteristics of both plants and animals but are placed in a distinct kingdom [1]. Fungi in general can be microscopic to macroscopic, and include unicellular organisms, such as yeasts, and multicellular organisms, such as filamentous fungi. Filamentous fungi grow as long, 2–10 μm thin filaments (hyphae) into intricate network structures (mycelium) that are observable to the naked eye and can grow to centimetre- to metre-scale. Filamentous fungi represent an incredibly rich and diverse group of species, with tens of thousands of fungal strains that have been identified, characterised, utilised and modified to this day. There is significant growth in the number of catalogued fungal strains, with an estimated 95% of fungal species estimated to be undescribed yet [2], and the scientific community is building an increasingly vast body *Correspondence: [email protected]; [email protected] 1 Mycorena AB, Kalkbruksgatan 4, 417 07 Gothenburg, Sweden Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
of knowledge around these complex and valuable organisms. The large and growing interest in filamentous fungi mostly stems from the fact that their metabolic processes can be used to produce and refine a wide range of products and solutions [3] that create value for science, industries, and consumers. Filamentous fungi, along with other microorganisms such as bacteria, yeast and algae, have been proven to be very useful for industrial applications [4]. Historically, their metabolites have created massive values in areas ranging from pharmaceuticals [5] to co
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