## 3 Macrofungi: Ascomycota and Basidiomycota  
Fungi are eukaryotic, heterotrophic microorganisms with chitin-based cell walls and represent one of the seven kingdoms of life. They are the second most abundant group of organisms after insects. Fungi are subdivided into seven Phyla, 35 Classes, and 129 Orders. They are characterized by a wide range of diversity in their morphology, cycles, length of life, and the ecosystems they can be found in. According to the latest estimations, there are 2.2 to 3.8 million species of fungi, of which only 120,000 have been classified [64]. Out of those 120,000 fungi, more than 2000 macrofungi have been characterized as edible \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Agri-Food Waste** & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Composition (\% _w/w_)**} & & & & \\ \hline  & **Cellulose** & **Hemicellulose** & **L Lignin** & **Ash** & **Total Solids** & **Moisture** & **C/N Ratio** & **Reference** \\ \hline Barley straw & 33.8 & 21.9 & 13.8 & 11 & - & - & - & [18] \\ Wheat straw & 32.9 & 24 & 8.9 & 6.7 & 95.6 & 7 & 50–80 & [18; 26; 48] \\ Wheat bran & 30 & 50 & 15 & - & - & - & 19 & [18; 26] \\ Rice straw & 39.2 & 23.5 & 36.1 & 12.4 & 98.6 & 6.5 & 8–18 & [18; 49] \\ Rice bran & 35 & 25 & 17 & - & - & - & 12–48 & [28] \\ Cat straw & 39.4 & 27.1 & 17.5 & 8 & - & - & - & [18] \\ Sawdust & 45.1 & 28.1 & 24.2 & 1.2 & 98.5 & 1.12 & - & [18] \\ Sugar beet waste & 26.3 & 18.5 & 2.5 & 4.8 & 87.5 & 12.4 & - & [18] \\ Sugarcane bagasse & 30.2 & 56.7 & 13.4 & 1.9 & 91.6 & 4.8 & 70–120 & [18] \\ Corn stalks & 61.2 & 19.3 & 6.9 & 10.8 & 97.7 & 6.4 & - & [18; 48] \\ Cotton stalks & 58.5 & 14.4 & 21.5 & 9.9 & - & 7.4 & 15 & [18; 49] \\ Soya stalks & 34.5 & 24.8 & 19.8 & 10.3 & - & 11.8 & 20–40 & [18; 45] \\ Sunflower stalks & 24.1 & 29.7 & 13.4 & 11.1 & - & - & 97 & [18; 45] \\ Walnut shells & 3 & 628 & 43 & - & - & - & 175 & [28] \\ Almond shells & 38 & 29 & 30 & - & - & - & 61 & [28] \\ Chestnut shells & 21 & 16 & 36 & - & - & - & 8 & [28] \\ Pistachio shell & 43 & 25 & 16 & - & - & - & 43 & [28] \\ Hazelnut shell & 55 & 34 & 35 & - & - & - & 50–58 & [28] \\ Olive oil cake & 31 & 21 & 26 & - & - & - & 14–17 & [28] \\ Olive mill wastewater & - & - & - & 2.61 & 0.41 & - & 35–55 & [50] \\ Oil palm cake & 64 & 15 & 5 & - & - & - & - & [45] \\ Sunflower oil cake & 25 & 12 & 8 & - & - & - & - & [45] \\ Cotton seed hull & 31 & 20 & 18 & - & - & - & 59–67 & [45] \\ Potato peel waste & 2.2 & - & - & 7.7 & - & 9.89 & - & [45] \\ Orange peel & 9.2 & 10.5 & 0.84 & 3.5 & - & 11.86 & - & [45] \\ Lemon peel & 12 & 5 & 2 & - & - & - & 48 & [45] \\ Pineapple peel & 18.11 & - & 1.37 & - & 93.6 & 91 & 41 & [45] \\ Apple pomace & 43 & 24 & 20 & - & - & - & 48 & [45] \\ Tomato pomace & 9 & 5 & 5 & - & - & - & - & [45] \\ Coffee skin & 23.7 & 16.6 & 28.5 & 5.3 & - & - & 14.4 & [51] \\ Spent coffee grounds & 12.4 & 39.1 & 23.9 & 1.3 & - & - & 16.9 & [26] \\ Cheese Whey & - & - & - & 0.5 & 0.1–22 & - & 57 & [52] \\ Brewyer’s spent grain & 19 & 21 & 19 & 4.2 & 4.9 & - & - & [53] \\ Distillery wastes & - & - & - & 36 & - & 32 & [54] \\ Grape marc & 20.9 & 13.3 & 34.7 & - & - & 74 & 24 & [55; 56] \\ Wine les & - & - & - & 10.5 & - & - & 6-13 & [57] \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Composition of various agri-food side streams. and/or medicinal [65]. Fungi exhibit a vast variety of life cycles, reproduction strategies, and ecological preferences, but most macrofungi are saprotrophic, which means that they obtain nutrients by decomposing animal and plant residues. They achieve that by secreting oxidative exoenzymes that degrade their growth substrate and absorbing the solubilized nutrients with their hyphae [49]. Thus, macrofungi are essential for the decomposition and recycling of dead organic matter in nature, converting complex lignocellulosic substrates into simpler organic matter, an ability that has been extensively exploited in a variety of biotechnological applications [66].