The rapid development of 'omics' technologies has also had a major impact on the eukaryotic fungal kingdom. The availability of the whole-genome sequences for a number of yeasts and filamentous fungi has meant that scientific progress and exploitation of these diverse groups of organisms has increased significantly. This book examines some of the recent advances in relation to the use of these new tools to exploit fungi effectively for a wide range of applications. The underlying approach is that with a better understanding of the function of genes they can be exploited for secretion of proteins commercially, discovery of new bioactive molecules, development of innovative crop protection strategies and for enhancing the breakdown of xenobiotic compounds in different ecosystems.

The book is divided into five different sections dealing with the topics: Comparative and functional fungal genomics; Bioactive molecules; Protein folding and secretion; Fungal bioremidation; and Fungal biocontrol of pests.

The first section has a short review of genome and proteome analyses of industrially important fungi. In my view this is an important area, and this summary does not really do justice to the subject and could have been made much more informative. In contrast, the 'Rice blast story' by Dean et al. is an excellent review of the genome-sequencing aspects to understanding the function of the key genes involved in the life cycle of this economically important and devastating disease of rice. Section II is a much stronger section with Chapters dealing with polyketide synthesis, fungal metabolites as agricultural compounds and about fungal secondary metabolism in the important Aspergillus group. This section clearly shows that while many companies have moved to using combinatorial libraries for trying to obtain new pharma compounds, the potential for success in natural products from micro-organisms, in this case fungi, may still be the best route for the discovery of the elusive new antibiotic compounds. Of course, genetic modification of existing fungi has been very beneficial for manipulation of growth parameters to enable overproduction of heterologous proteins and other useful secreted compounds. This is well described in section III. Section IV deals with remediation approaches where yeasts and filamentous fungi have been used for heavy metal uptake, the sensitivity/tolerance of fungal bioluminescence as environmental biosensors, the use of white rot fungi and their battery of lignases and laccases for enhancing breakdown of pesticides and the exciting area of metal and mineral transformations by fungi. This is a very informative section and I found the biosensors and metal transformation systems particularly fascinating. The final section (V) deals with use of alternatives to chemicals for pest control. There has been much research in development of biocontrol agents for both pest and disease control. This section suggests that major advances have been made in development of such natural control systems for weed control and to some extent for pest and plant disease control. The Chapters by Lorito's group on Trichoderma species and plant disease control and the multimodal fungal invertebrate pathogen approaches (Lopez-Llorca & Jansson) were particularly stimulating to me. However, in Europe, while the registration procedures remain the same as for chemical control compounds, the potential for commercialization is more limited than that in North America and elsewhere where fast track systems have facilitated better exploitation of biocontrol agents, especially fungi.

Overall, this book is a very good volume which brings together most of the relevant information together with information on exploitation routes being used today for fungal systems. However, a few chapters are relatively short and this is a pity as one is left wanting more information. I think that this book will be particularly useful to undergraduate and postgraduate students to obtain necessary knowledge and an entry into subjects which they may like to follow up in more depth.