Economic importances of the Deuteromycetes?

Question

What are the economic importances of the Deuteromycetes?

Answer 1

The economic importances of the Deuteromycetes are:

1. Majority of the members are saprobes or weak parasites of plants. Some are parasitic on other fungi and the lichen.
2. It forms associations like the lichen symbionts, endophytes of angiosperms and gymnosperms and mycrorhiza.
3. Certain members are used in the processing and flavouring foods like the Penicillium camemberti and Penicillium roqueforti in the cheese making industry.
4. Some are used for the production of chemicals or some antibiotics as Penicillin from the Penicillium chrysogenum.
5. Many species produces mycotoxins for example Aspergillus flavus.
6. Some other species causes serious disease of plants and animals some of them are Fusarium spp., Cercospora spp., Alternaria spp. etc.
7. It causes disease such as the red rot, early blight, helminthosporium, tikka disease and wilt.
8. The red rot of sugar cane causes the reduction in the juice content which also brings about the falling of leaves. It is caused by the fungus Colletotrichum falcatum.
9. The brown leaf spot of rice which affects the rice plant and is caused by the fungus Helminthosporium; the Bengal famine is due to the Helminthosporium.
10. The tikka disease is caused by the Crecospora which forms brown and black spot on leaves.