Over the last decade considerable progress has been made in white biotechnology research and further major scientific and technological breakthroughs are expected in the future. The first large-scale industrial applications of modern biotechnology have been in the areas of food and animal feed production (agricultural/green biotechnology) and in pharmaceuticals (medical/red biotechnology). In contrast, the productions of bioactive compounds through fermentation or enzymatic conversion are known as industrial or white biotchnology. The fungi are ubiquitous in nature and have been sorted out from different habitats, including extreme environments (high temperature, low temperature, salinity and pH); and associated with plants (Epiphytic, Endophytic and Rhizospheric). The fungal strains are beneficial as well as harmful for human beings. The beneficial fungal strains may play important roles in the agricultural, industrial, and medical sectors. The fungal strains and its product (enzymes, bioactive compounds, and secondary metabolites) are very useful for industry (e.g., the discovery of penicillin from Penicillium chrysogenum). This discovery was a milestone in the development of white biotechnology as the industrial production of penicillin and antibiotics using fungi moved industrial biotechnology into the modern era, transforming it into a global industrial technology. Since then, white biotechnology has steadily developed and now plays a key role in several industrial sectors providing both high value nutraceutical and pharmaceutical products. The fungal strains and bioactive compounds also play an important role in environmental cleaning. This volume covers the latest research developments related to value-added products in white biotechnology through fungi.

Ajar Nath Yadav is an Assistant Professor in Department of Biotechnology, Akal College of Agriculture, Eternal University, Baru Sahib, Himachal Pradesh, India. He has 4 years of teaching and 10 years of research experiences in the field of Industrial Biotechnology, Microbial Biotechnology, Microbial Diversity, and Plant-Microbe-Interactions. Dr. Yadav obtained doctorate degree in Microbial Biotechnology, jointly from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi and Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, India; M.Sc. (Biotechnology) from Bundelkhand University and B.Sc. (CBZ) from University of Allahabad, India. Dr. Yadav has 101 publications, which include 37 research papers, 15 review articles, 3 books, 1 book manual, 31 book chapters, 8 popular articles, 7 editorials, 2 technical reports, and 1 patent with h-index 23, i10-index 50, and 1551 citations (Google Scholar). Dr. Yadav has published 105 research communications in different international and national conferences. Dr. Yadav has got ten Best Paper Presentation Awards, one Young Scientist Award (NASI-Swarna Jyanti Purskar) and three certificate of excellence in reviewing awards. Dr. Yadav received "Outstanding Teacher Award" in 6th Annual Convocation 2018 by Eternal University, Baru Sahib, Himachal Pradesh. Dr. Yadav has a long standing interest in teaching at the UG, PG and PhD level and is involved in taking courses in agriculture microbiology, bacteriology, bioprocess engineering and technology, environmental microbiology, industrial microbiology, and microbial biotechnology. Dr. Yadav is currently handling two projects one funded by Department of Environments, Science & Technology (DEST), Shimla entitled "Development of Microbial Consortium as Bio-inoculants for Drought and Low Temperature Growing Crops for Organic Farming in Himachal Pradesh" as Principal Investigator and another funded by HP Council for Science, Technology & Environment (HIMCOSTE) on "Value-added products" as Co-PI. He also worked as an organizing committee me