Importance and recent aspects of fungal-based biosensors

Abstract Microbial populations like bacteria and fungi are used as sensing elements by converting biological response into electric signals. Fungal-based biosensors are advantageous over bacteria as they have a high binding capacity and more specificity. Natural bioluminescent properties in fungi make them suitable candidate for preparing fungal-based biosensors. Common fungal-based biosensors reported are electrical methods, growth rate, colorimetry, luminescence, fluorescence, etc. Recent advancements in the field of molecular biology, such as insertion of new coding sequences or modification of fungal genome, offer more precise, accurate, and cost-effective procedures. Many yeast- and mold-based biosensors are utilized for environmental and eco-toxicity analysis. In this chapter, we explore the importance and aspects of fungi-based biosensors for a sensitive and rapid method to assess environmental samples.