How do mushrooms eat? What is the significance of mushrooms in nature and in human life?

Unlike plants, fungi do not use photosynthesis for energy. They mainly use the chemical energy stored in the substances they digest.

While we often think of fungi as organisms that cause disease and rot food, fungi are important to human life on many levels. They affect human well-being on a large scale as they are part of the nutrient cycle in ecosystems. They also have other ecosystem uses such as pesticides.

Mushrooms not only directly produce substances that humans use as medicines, but are also versatile tools in the vast field of medical research.