Some coprophilous fungi produce mushrooms with potential economic value, particularly those in the genera Coprinopsis, Panaeolus and Deconica. Also, coprophilic fungi help break down dung making it more useful as fertilizer and for nutrient recycling.

Dear Dr.Alphus

Thanks for your comments

Is there any importance for Dung fungi from economic point of view?

Dung fungi Economic importance

Yes the dung utilizing have enormous economical significance. The common agaric mushroom is a multiple billion dollar global business. The substrate for its successful cultivation is heavily dependent on a dung straw compost. The mushroom spent compost is of much value as soil organic amendment which greatly improve horticultural plants with much value. To the value of the mushroom add the elimination of need for fertilizers and additional production from prime substrate. The maximizing of these economic and environment values depends on the effective holistic farming concepts and effective knowledge for utilization of the value added material which is anything but spent regardless of its common name spent compost. These organic materials have also shown a ability to bioremediate issues of areas which have toxicity issues. The value of dung fungi is growing you could say its mushrooming.

Thanks Paul for comments, appreciating

Something that should not be under estimated is the role of dung fungi in stabilizing soil organic matter resulting from composting and mushroom production change. Raw manure applied to fields for crop production is largely decomposed and has minimal effect on long term soil organic matter. When plants are fed with compost the stabilized organic matter has much greater longevity and results in significant carbon and nitrogen sequestration. In our experiments in Pennsylvania the use of raw manure for maize production could give a few hundred kg/ha effect in soil carbon but when manures were used as composts the effect on soil carbon was in 1,000s of kg/ha C per year a magnitude of difference. The effect of raw manure is about the same calculated for no tillage using conventional fertilization using compost put this into a whole new potential. Ohio State University researcher Rattan Lal has suggested no till might mitigation up to 10% of world greenhouse gas emission accepting this we would suggest compost is a real total solution for this issue of present day and future concern. This might be the biggest potential of all related to dung fungi.

Yes, we can identify many economical aspects to these fungi. Many species may be used to production of secondary metabolites, enzymes to bioremediation, medicines (as Sordaria fimicola) to avoid transplants rejection. We can eat Coprinus comatus... But I think the most important use for this group is its use in enzymatic prodution and bioremediation.

That's is a very good economic frontier!

Francisco:

Thanks for comments

For those who want to read more about economic potential of dung fungi, I recommend the work of Sarrocco (2016) Dung-inhabiting fungi: a potential reservoir of novel secondary metabolites for the control of plant pathogens, (Pest Manag Sci 2016; 72: 643–652) available on: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ps.4206

Best,

FJSC.