Fungi surviving on treated wood and some of their physiological properties

Abstract

Wood is still widely used as a construction material but in spite of great assortment of antifungal chemicals, incidents of treated-wood damage still happen. The objective of the present investigation was to identify the fungal species that survived after wood treatment and make a primary screening of some physiological properties important for fungi in wood colonization. Fungal strains from Alternaria, Cladosporium, Fusarium, Penicillium, Phoma, Trichoderma and Ulocladium genera were isolated and identified. The primary endoglucanase and phenoloxidase activity discoloration assays showed that wood colonization ability of fungi isolated from treated wood differed among the strains and some of them had not only cellulolytic but even ligninolytic activity as well. The spectrophothometric analysis of fungal enzymatic activity on wood showed that Alternaria alternata 8/15-2 was most active tyrosinase producer and Cladosporium herbarum 8/15-1 - laccase producer whereas peroxidase activity level and variation tendency of all strains was alike. Among studied strains only Penicillium genus representatives had medium acidification ability. Alternaria alternata 8/15-2 was the hardiest to wood preservatives fungal strain. The study of fungal physiological properties could help in selecting wood preservatives, in elucidation of reasons of their inefficiency and creating of new ones.