Three guest advisors will guide the collection. Hideaki Oikawa is described as a leader in bioorganic chemistry and the biosynthesis of natural products, with current work focused on genome mining for novel fungal natural products and the reaction mechanisms of enzymes that form carbon–carbon bonds during biosynthesis. His stated aim is to provide fundamental insight into the chemical strategies found in nature and to inspire new approaches in synthetic biology. Chengwei Liu of Northeast Forestry University focuses on natural-product biosynthesis and synthetic biology, particularly the search for secondary metabolites from macrofungi such as mushrooms and wood-decaying fungi. Jianzhao Qi, an associate professor at the Edible Fungi Research Center at Northwest A&F University, works on natural-product formation in large fungi, including the discovery of compounds with anti-tumor and other useful activities from medicinal and edible mushrooms.

The announcement identifies several technical approaches represented by the guest advisors. Liu’s group uses heterologous expression and CRISPR genome editing to investigate complex biosynthetic pathways and activate silent gene clusters. Oikawa’s work combines genome mining with mechanistic analysis of carbon–carbon bond-forming enzymes, while Qi’s group studies the biological pathways used by fungi to produce natural products. Qi also applies synthetic biology and green manufacturing techniques to the production of complex active ingredients. The announcement presents these methods as part of broader research programs for finding bioactive compounds, understanding how fungi make them, and creating production systems. It does not report particular compounds, experimental systems, yields, biological measurements or completed clinical studies for the collection, so the cited activities and potential applications should be understood as the aims of the participating researchers rather than demonstrated outcomes from a shared collection study.

To submit to the collection, authors must answer “yes” to the question asking whether they are submitting a paper for a specific special issue or article collection, then select “Fungal secondary metabolism and biosynthesis” from the corresponding drop-down menu. Questions about the collection and discount codes should be directed to Changluan Zhou at Taylor & Francis. The release also states that the guest advisors declare no conflict of interest regarding the work. By bringing together expertise in fungal genome mining, natural-product pathways, enzyme mechanisms, gene-cluster activation, heterologous expression, genome editing, synthetic biology and green manufacturing, the call is designed to solicit papers across complementary stages of fungal secondary-metabolite research. It does not imply that the collection has already generated discoveries, and the announcement’s statements about pharmaceutical, agricultural, drug-development and functional-food applications describe potential uses associated with the advisors’ research rather than verified clinical benefits or commercial outcomes.

Subject of Research: A manuscript call for research on fungal secondary metabolism and natural-product biosynthesis.

Article Title: Submit a manuscript to the journal Mycology for an article collection on fungal secondary metabolism and biosynthesis

Article References: Submit a manuscript to the journal Mycology for an article collection on fungal secondary metabolism and biosynthesis. Original publication (Bibliographic details unavailable.)

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: fungal biology, secondary metabolism, natural products, biosynthesis, genome mining, CRISPR editing, heterologous expression, synthetic biology, mushrooms, bioactive compounds, Submit, manuscript

The collection’s guest advisors are Yongjun Wei, an associate professor at the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Laboratory of Synthetic Biology at Zhengzhou University in China, and Boyang Ji, a scientific data developer at the BioInnovation Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark. Wei is also director of the Henan Province Engineering Technology Research Center for Fermentation of Chinese Veterinary Drugs. His stated research interests include synthetic microbiology and the application of microbiota and synthetic biology to human-health problems. Ji’s work focuses on genome-scale metabolic modeling of fungal cell factories, machine learning for strain optimization, and integration of multi-omics information in fungal production systems.

The advisors’ backgrounds connect the collection to several technical areas of fungal biomanufacturing, including strain engineering, metabolic modeling, data-driven optimization and the integration of biological datasets. Ji describes applications of these approaches in pharmaceuticals, enzymes and bio-based chemicals. These fields concern the use and improvement of fungal biological systems for production, while Wei’s background adds experience in fermentation and synthetic microbiology. The announcement presents these research profiles as context for the collection but does not provide experimental results, production figures or evidence of a new research outcome.

Authors seeking to submit to the special collection must indicate that they are submitting for a specific special issue or article collection when completing the journal’s submission questionnaire. In the field for the special-issue or article-collection name, they should select “Fungal Biomanufacturing.” Contributors with questions or those seeking discount codes can contact Changluan Zhou at the email address supplied in the announcement. The guest advisors have declared no conflict of interest regarding the collection.

Submissions will undergo full peer review, according to the announcement. Authors are advised to review the journal’s scope and submission instructions before submitting a manuscript, both to confirm that their work fits the collection and to meet the journal’s requirements. The announcement was issued on 15 September 2026 by the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It describes a manuscript-submission opportunity and identifies the journal, collection, guest advisors and submission process; it does not report findings from a study, announce a new fungal product or evaluate the commercial performance of fungal biomanufacturing methods.

Subject of Research: Submission opportunities for a peer-reviewed journal collection on fungal biomanufacturing

Article Title: Submit a manuscript to the journal Mycology for an article collection on fungal biomanufacturing

Article References: Submit a manuscript to the journal Mycology for an article collection on fungal biomanufacturing. Original publication (Bibliographic details unavailable.)

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: fungal biomanufacturing, Mycology journal, article collection, peer review, fungal cell factories, genome-scale modeling, machine learning, multi-omics, synthetic microbiology, scientific publishing, Submit, manuscript