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The face mask introduction in SARS-CoV-2 pandemic situation, one of the precautionary measure to reduce the rate of transmission of infection from person to person. There are many type of of face masks enter into our global market with various size and designs. Among those, surgical mask belongs to secure an important place and this aimed to evaluate the degrading efficiency disposable face masks (single use face masks). The present study dealt with, biodegradation of face masks which is made of polypropylene with the help of bacterial strainPesudomonasaeruginosaisolated from the plastic waste dumping sites in an around the Tiruchirappalli, India. The bacteriacould degrade PP mask via the formation of biofilm on a solid medium. To degrade the PP, the mask pieces were incubated with the culture of P. aeruginosain three different solid and liquid medium (nutrient agar, Bushnell Haas agar and mineral salt medium) for 30 days at 37ᵒC. The microbial degradation(up to 33% of weight reduction of PP films within 30 days) was proved by surface changes along with the variation in the intensity of functional groups as well as carbonyl index variations using Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) and Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. These results suggested that P.aeruginosa strain can prove to be a suitable candidate for polypropylene mask biodegradation without causing any impairment to our health or environment.

Filamentous fungi are a major source of industrial biotechnology due to their applicability in productions of primary and secondary metabolites, enzymes, and recombinant proteins. Trichoderma strains are widely used in various agricultural and industrial applications. Recent development in molecular tools is capable of modifying the genetic material of the fungus to increase the primary production of metabolites. Therefore, understanding of the genetic pathways involved in the metabolites synthesis significantly related to the expression of the genome clusters in Trichoderma. The regulation of genome through using the current molecular techniques can trigger higher production of targeted metabolites. Hence, this book chapter reviews the genomic regulation for functional genes of metabolites and enzymes in Trichoderma.

Endophytic fungi are highly potential for the production of pharmaceutically valuable compounds such as anticancer, antioxidant, antimicrobial, antidiabetic and industrial enzymes, etc. Today human faces a lot of challenges for existence due to the appearance of new diseases, infections, drug resistances and imbalances in the ecosystems. Here endophytes were the potential sources for the new remedies. Endophytes are contemplated as a treasury for bioprospecting, and they assist in many forms to conquer many complications. Among the various endophytic microbes, fungi have been found most potential microorganisms which are a reservoir of largely untapped bioactive metabolites. In the future we need to seek for endophytes for their bioactive compounds.