Screening wood- and bark-inhabiting Basidiomycetes for esterase activity in liquid stationary culture

Abstract

Extracellular esterase activities in stationary liquid culture filtrates for fifteen species of wood-and bark-inhabiting homobasidiomycetes were determined spectrophotometrically using p-nitrophenolacyl esters of four to eighteen carbon atoms. In a basal medium supplemented with glucose, Dendrothele acerina, D. griseo-cana and Mycena meliigena showed esterase activities with preferences for shorter acyl substrates, whereas Aleurodiscus oakesii, Cystostereum pini-canadense, Dichostereum effuscatum and Dendrophora albo-badia exhibited esterase activities with preferences for longer acyl substrates.

Aleurodiscus oakesii, D. effuscatum and M. meliigena were also grown in media supplemented with suber-in-rich commercial cork or processed maple rhytidome. Mycena meliigena responded by an earlier onset and elevated level of esterase activity, and by a shift toward a preference for longer acyl substrates. This result is consistent with previous evidence presented that M. meliigena can degrade suberin. Evidence for suberin degradation by the other fungi displaying esterase activity is less clear-cut.

Key Words:

• bark
• enzyme
• fungi
• suberin
• wood