Enzymatic activity of ectendomycorrhizal fungi

Abstract

 Enzymatic (cellulolytic, pectolytic, proteolytic, chitinolytic and acid phosphatase) activities in the cultures of ten different ectendomycorrhizal strains (mainly Wilcoxina spp.) were studied. Although most of the fungi produced all these enzymes, their activities were low (milliunits per hour), with the exception of those of the pectolytic enzymes, which were detected at considerably higher levels (units per hour). Hebeloma crustuliniforme, an ectomycorrhizal fungus (positive control in our studies) synthesized ca. 2,000 times more exoglucanase than the ectendomycorrhizal fungi. Wilcoxina mikolae (ATCC 52685) had the lowest enzymatic activities of all 11 strains compared.