Traditional fungal fermentation leading to the production of foods and beverages is an ancient bioprocess but still practices worldwide to date. In Europe, yeasts are extensively involved in the brewing of beers and wines. Penicillium spp. are used for ripening cheeses and meats. In East Asia, there is a variety of fermented food produced by molds or yeasts, which have profoundly shaped the eating habits of locals. Aspergillus oryzae is applied for brewing soy sauce, miso, sake, doenjang etc. Monascus spp. are used for producing red mold rice. Various molds or yeasts contribute to the production of fermented bean curd, rice wines, Chinese liquor, tempeh etc.

Qu (Koji) is the soul behind these fermented foods, which is composed of cooked grains inoculated with a fermentation culture and as a fermentation starter. The invention of Qu (Koji) reflects the wisdom of the ancient working people without the concept of modern microbiology, which has become an essential part of the local culture. However, many fermented foods from molds and yeasts have not been widely recognized yet.

Despite the enormous economic and practical significance of traditional fungal fermentation in food production, the central problem is that the products and fermentation fungi have strong regional characteristics, which also led to the local features of related research, and relatively lacking systematic comparison. Therefore, the purpose of our Research Topic is to make a collection for summarizing the past research progress, presenting the latest research results, and discuss the prospects on fermentation fungi research and related industries from different regions. We hope the Research Topic can provide a platform for exchanging research and application results from different types of fermentation fungi, and also providing a global perspective for molds and yeasts in fermented food production.

We welcome Perspective, Original Research and Review regarding the following themes but not limited to:
• Molecular biology genetics research, especially on genetic transformation method, fungal development and regulation of secondary metabolism
• Omics research, such as functional genomics, large-scale microbial identification and interaction
• Improvement of the fermentation process and introduction of not widely known products
• Functional components produced by fermentation fungi
• Opinions and perspectives on fungal fermentation industry and research
• Microbiota of Qu (Koji) and microbiome changes during the brewing process
• Control of mycotoxins arising from fermentation fungi

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Frontiers in Microbiology

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