Mini review: Extracellular enzymes and proteins produced by nematophagous fungi

While the advanced use of nematophagous and nematode-trapping fungi has been promoted and proven to be effective in the field to control root-know nematodes, the prospect of enzymes produced by these group have remained unclear and not extensively summarized. The aim of this review was to describe the current progress and possibly suggestion for further investigation regarding the extracellular enzymes and proteins produced by the fungi. We identified some studies published between 1985 and 2022 from the Scopus database by using a combination of keywords or Boolean operators: “(Nematophagous OR Nematode-trapping) AND (Fungi OR Fungus) AND Enzyme” in the “Article title, Abstract, Keywords” section. The procedure yielded a total of 77 research articles regarding the context with its peak of publication in 2007 with 6 articles. Members of Orbiliaceae or nematode-trapping fungi were predominantly mentioned in the articles among other fungal taxa such as Arthrobotrys oligospora, Duddingtonia flagrans, and Monacrosporium thaumasium. Proteases, serine proteases, and chitinases were the most investigated enzymes produced by nematophagous fungi, with a topic emphasizing on their utilization and role in biological control against nematodes.