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The synergistic ability of some wood-degrading fungi to transform lignins and lignosulfonates on various media

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Summary

In order to investigate the ligninolytic activity with mixed cultures of wood-degrading fungi, and the influence of various growth conditions on this activity, 50 wood-degrading fungi were tested for ligninolysis in pure culture and in pair-wise combinations according to a simple plate test recently developed in this laboratory. It was found that a synergistic degradation of lignin and of lignosulfonate was common among fungi inoculated pair-wise on lignin or lignosulfonate media; decomposition was enhanced in the zone where the two mycelia interacted. This synergistic effect was noted with pairs of two different white-rot fungi, with pairs of one white-rot and one brown-rot fungus, and with pairs of one white-rot and one soil Deuteromycete.

Lignosulfonate was more susceptible to the synergistic action of pairs of fungi than was lignin. The synergistic attack on lignosulfonate was more pronounced on a meager medium than on a carbohydrate-rich one. On the contrary, the ligninolysis with pure cultures of the fungi was more pronounced on the carbohydrate-rich medium, and lignin was decomposed more easily than was lignosulfonate.

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Sundman, V., Näse, L. The synergistic ability of some wood-degrading fungi to transform lignins and lignosulfonates on various media. Archiv. Mikrobiol. 86, 339–348 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00424990

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