Fungi as environmental bioindicators

Environmental bioindicators are species or communities of animals, plants, bacteria, fungi, algae, lichens, and planktons whose existence, quantity, and nature can be used to make inferences on the quality of the environment. Bioindicators can be used to detect environmental contaminants by on-site visual inspections or through laboratory analysis. Fungi are one of the most important groups of environmental bioindicators due to their ubiquitous distribution, diverse ecological roles, remarkable biological diversity, and high sensitivity to environmental changes. This review provides a comprehensive reappraisal of using various groups of fungi, fungal communities, symbiotic associations with fungal component, biomarkers of fungi as "mycoindicators" to assess the quality of air, water and soil. Fungi are exploited by researchers as double-edged tools for both biomonitoring and mycoremediation simultaneously. The applications of bioindicators have advanced through the integration of genetic engineering, high-throughput DNA sequencing, and gene editing techniques. Therefore mycoindicators are significant as emerging tools for more accurate and affordable early detection of environmental contaminants supporting the mitigation efforts of pollution in both natural and man-made environment.