Cellulose Degradation by Cellulose-Clearing and Non-Cellulose-Clearing Brown-Rot Fungi

Abstract

Cellulose degradation by four cellulose-clearing brown-rot fungi in the Coniophoraceae—Coniophora prasinoides, C. puteana, Leucogyrophana arizonica , and L. olivascens —is compared with that of a non-cellulose-clearing brown-rot fungus, Poria placenta . The cellulose- and the non-cellulose-clearing brown-rot fungi apparently employ similar mechanisms to depolymerize cellulose; most likely a nonenzymatic mechanism is involved.