many antibiotics are fungi...but?

Question

what role would this serve in fungi?

Answer 1

The same as it does in humans, to control bacterial infection, long enough for the fungus to reproduce.

Answer 2

Nope....antibiotics are NOT fungi....perhaps you mean, that many antibiotics (starting with penicillin from the common bread fungus, mucor penicillum, ) are fungi derivatives...that is true....
However, most of the antibiotics used today, are produced also by several strains of bacteriae (for example, mupirocine, that kills staphylococcus aureus, is derivated from a kleibsiella)----The first observation is that, in mixed cultures, fungi and bacteriae compite against each other for the same nutrients, and both can fabricate substances that will kill the competitors (antibiotics) and that was the base for carrying on discovering them....
Many, are plainly synthetic (trimetoprim etc)