Biological characteristics of five wood-rotting fungi and wood-decaying ability to Betula platyphylla

In this paper, the growth rate of five wood-rotting fungi, i.e., Coriolus versicolor, Irpex lacteus, Fomes fomentarius, Piptoporus betulinus and Pholiota adiposa, in solid medium and their biomass in liquid culture medium were compared by measuring mycelium length and dry mass. The activity of three main ligninolytic enzymes in those fungi, namely LiP, MnP and Lac, were also tested by colorimetry. At the same time, these fungi were used to decay the wood samples from 300 natural trees of white birch, to study their wood-decaying ability by measuring wood mass loss. The result showed that the growth rate, biomass, ligninolytic enzyme activity, and wood-decaying ability of the fungi were incompletely correlated. The growth rates of C. versicolor and I. lacteus were faster than those of P. betulinus and F. fomentarius; P. adiposa was the slowest in growth. The biomass of P. betulinus was the highest; C. versicolor, I. lacteus and F. fomentarius were in the middle, and P. adiposa was the lowest. There existed LiP, MnP and Lac activities in all fungi except P. betulinus, and the enzyme activities induced by wood powder were all higher than those of the control. The Lac of I. lacteus and the LiP of F. fomentarius and P. adiposa were only expressed in wood powder medium; the longer the fungi were cultured, the higher activity the enzyme had. The decomposition ability of C. versicolor to wood samples was the highest, followed by F. fomentarius and P. betulinus; I. lacteus and P. adiposa were the lowest.