Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2019) 8(2): 2717-2725 2717 Review Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2019.802.318 Fungi: Diversity in India and its Potential Applications Kiranpreet Kaur, Ramandeep Kaur, Shivani Thakur, Anuj Kumar, Harpreet Singh and Rajnish Kumar Verma* Department of Botany, Dolphin PG College of Science & Agriculture, Chunni Kalan, Punjab, 140307, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Fungi are eukaryotic achlorophyllous organisms live in wide array of habit and habitats on earth. Being achlorophyllous fungi exhibit an absortive mode nutrition, which lead to Saprophyte, Parasite or Mutualistic existence. As a saprophyte fungi along with bacteria bring out complete mineralization of plant and animal remains. As a parasite fungi cause many diseases in animals and plants. As Mutualistic fungi live in intimate association with other organisms. Fungi are almost cosmopolitan in their distribution and they exploit the diverse array of macro and micro nutritional niches. The most important factor influencing the distribution and life style of fungi is their heterotrophic nutrition (Cook and Rayner, 1984). Fungal diversity Fungi are the largest and diverse group of organisms out number by insects only Tropical belts of the world with high rainfall, humidity and temperature, is known to encompass the most diverse habitats and considered to have the highest diversity for most groups of organisms be it plants, animals or microorganisms and fungi (Pianka, International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 8 Number 02 (2019) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Fungi are eukaryotic achlorophyllous organisms live in wide array of habit and habitats on earth. Being non-photosynthetic fungi exhibit anabsortive mode nutrition, which lead to Saprophyte, Parasite or Mutualistic existence. Fungi is second largest group of organisms outnumber by insects only. Recent estimate suggested that, around 2.2- 3.8 million fungi are there on planet. Fungi are known to produce many antibiotics, bio-active molecules, organic acids and secondary metabolites etc. Fungi so far have been exploited very poorly and yet have a huge potential in bio-control, bioremediation and novel compound. Keywords Fungi Diversity in India, Hyphomycetes Accepted: 20 January 2019 Available Online: 10 February 2019 Article Info