Bioremediation

The degradative processes that fungal enzymes catalyze on their natural substrates can be used on other, man-made substrates to provide biological clean-up. Hydrocarbons like oils can be degraded by fungi and other microbes to CO2 and H2O by aerobic respiration. These activities are termed bioremediation, and contaminated areas of land can be actively bioremediated by the addition of fungal propagules.

Pesticides, explosives, and other recalcitrant molecules can be changed by co-metabolic activities of fungi, where enzymes normally used for one metabolic process within the fungus coincidentally catalyze another reaction. The products of co-metabolic reactions are not utilized any further by the fungus, but can sometimes be used by other microbes in the ecosystem. Reactions like these can lead to reduced toxicity of some contaminants, but in other cases can lead to activation of the pollutant, leading to an increase in the toxicity of the compound.