Wood is a major pool of organic carbon that is highly resistant to decay, owing largely to the presence of lignin. The only organisms capable of substantial lignin decay are white rot fungi in the Agaricomycetes, which also contains non-lignin-degrading brown rot and ectomycorrhizal species. Comparative analyses of 31 fungal genomes (12 generated for this study) suggest that lignin-degrading pe...

Lignin-degrading white-rot fungi have the unique ability to degrade/mineralize a broad spectrum of structurally diverse toxic environmental pollutants. Extracellular peroxidases are important in degrading some, but not all, xenobiotic compounds. More research is needed to realize the potential of white-rot fungi in field-scale applications. Recent progress in our knowledge of the biochemistry a...

The effect of corn stover lignin structure alteration caused by white-rot fungi pretreatment on the pyrolysis kinetics was studied by FTIR and TG/DTA. Results showed that biopretreatment had a remarkable effect on lignin pyrolysis. Biopretreatment can decrease the activation energy and increase the pre-exponential factor in the initial stage of pyrolysis, which makes it possible to start the li...

Biodegradation by white rot fungi Abstract Pentachlorophenol (PCP) is a major organic compound used in the wood preservation. White rot fungal strains screened from local sources such as wood trunks and twigs of higher plants. Five selected isolates of White Rot Fungi (WRF) Viz: Laetiporus cincinnatus, Trametes versicolor, Fomes fomentarius, Ganoderma aplanutum and Pleurotus ostreatus isolated ...

The problem of degradation of agricultural residues from palm oil industry is increasing due to its expansion. Lignocelloulosic waste from these industry represent large amount of unutilized resources, this is due to their high lignin content. Since white rot fungi are capable of degrading lignin, its potential for the degradation of lignocelloulosic waste from palm oil industry was accessed. T...

The causal agent of root and butt rot of conifer trees, Heterobasidion annosum, is widespread in boreal forests and economically responsible for annual loss of approximately 50 million euros to forest industries in Finland alone and much more at European level. In order to further understand the pathobiology of this fungus at the genome level, a Finnish isolate of H. annosum sensu stricto (isol...

wood is a porous three dimensional, hydroscopic, viscoelastic, anisotropic bio-polymer composite composed of an interconnecting matrix of cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin with minor amounts of inorganic elements and organic extractives. some, but not all, of the cell wall polymer hydroxyl groups are accessible to moisture and these accessible hydroxyls form hydrogen bonds with water. as the...

Fungal decay of wood in service, especially brown-rot, results in billions of dollars (US) of losses annually. Recent environmental restrictions, both U.S. and international, are limiting or eliminating the use of broad spectrum biocides for wood preservation, primarily due to problems with disposal. In order to design new, environmentally benign methods for control of wood decay fungi, it is e...

Decay and mold resistance of zinc borate (ZB) and calcium borate (CB) modified oriented strandboard (OSB) from southern mixed hardwoods and yellow pine was investigated in this study. Tests were done with brown rot, Gloeophyllum trabeum, and white-rot, Trametes versicolar, fungi for 8 and 12 weeks, respectively. Wood species and fungus type had significant influence on the decay resistance. Dec...