Paper accepted: ”Deciphering the ChitoCode: Fungal chitins and chitosans as functional biopolymers”

Today, a short review by Dr. Stefan Cord-Landwehr and Prof. Bruno Moerschbacher was accepted for publication in a special issue on biomaterials in the journal “Fungal Biology and Biotechnology”. The editor invited us to write a so-called “primer” for this issue, a short review highlighting why the subject is timely, of interest and relevance, then introducing three recent developments in the field and defining three emerging topics ripe for investigation and new insights. Describing why research on fungal chitins and chitosans is exciting was not difficult, but selecting the three most important recent answers and three most promising emerging questions in this field was rather a challenge, and our selection is certainly biased by our own interests. We tried to balance fundamental research into understanding the physiological roles of these biopolymers in natural matrices such as fungal cell walls, and applied aspects of developing products exploiting the superior material properties and versatile biological activities of these precious functional biopolymers. We reasoned that investigating molecular structure-function relationships and cellular modes of action of bioactive chitins and chitosans will be key to linking these two aspects of their biology on the one hand, and their biotechnology on the other hand. Probably the biggest challenge was to do all this in just about 2500 words and a single figure. We reserved the latter for the Conclusion in which we describe for the first time our hypothesis of a Chitosan Code hidden in the acetylation patterns of chitins and chitosans. The reviewers seemed to like our idea, and we are now eagerly looking forward to the reactions of the wider chitosan community.