Morphological Engineering of Filamentous Fungi: Research Progress and Perspectives

Filamentous fungi are important cell factories for the production of high-value enzymes and chemicals for the food, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries. Under submerged fermentation, filamentous fungi exhibit diverse fungal morphologies that are influenced by environmental factors, which in turn affect the rheological properties and mass transfer of the fermentation system, and ultimately the synthesis of products. In this review, we first summarize the mechanisms of mycelial morphogenesis and then provide an overview of current developments in methods and strategies for morphological regulation, including physicochemical and metabolic engineering approaches. We also anticipate that rapid developments in synthetic biology and genetic manipulation tools will accelerate morphological engineering in the future.