Lignicolous Fungi Collected in Northern Italy: Identification and Morphological Description of Isolates

Abstract

In recent years, fungi, particularly lignicolous fungi, have been re-considered as a source for biotechnological and industrial applications. Lignicolous basidiomycetes are the most effective at degrading wood, particularly cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin, which are among the most resistant biopolymers. This study aims to constitute a research collection of lignicolous fungal strains that are useful for further studies and applications in different production fields. The basidiomata used to isolate the strains in a pure culture were, firstly, identified through macroscopic and microscopic characteristics integrated with ecological data. To obtain pure cultures of dikaryotic mycelia, 96 different strains of Agaricomycetes belonging to 76 different species and related to 51 genera (18 families and 5 orders) were isolated using a malt extract agar (MEA) medium enriched with hydrogen peroxide. The identity of the isolated strains was then confirmed by molecular analysis through the sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the ribosomal RNA gene cluster. All the strains are currently conserved using different methods, and their vitality is periodically tested.

Mycelium-Composite Materials—A Promising Alternative to Plastics?

“…Production of skeletal and binding hyphae (di- and trimitic hyphal systems) helps WD and LI fungi to create very strong mycelial networks [ 5 , 34 , 37 ], binding together different solid particles from the substrate they colonize.…”

“…Fungi producing white rot wood is particularly important for the production of MCMs due to their substrate efficient use as sources of nutrients. The dimitic and trimitic hyphal systems of many WD and LI fungi [ 5 , 34 , 37 ] make them create very strong layers of mycelium and thus composites with increased resistance, but most studies for MCMs production used only a few species of WD basidiomycetes, especially those well known as cultivated edible and medicinal mushrooms [ 6 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ], while many valuable species and genera from this group remain untested.…”

How Different Molecular Markers Estimate the Diversity of European Species of the Ganoderma Genus

“…G. applanatum can also be easily recognized by the characteristic continuous tube strates with intervening layers of context when the basidiomata are more than two years old [16]. G. adspersum has similar perennial basidiomata without intervening layers of context, and the basidiospores are larger in this species.…”

“…G. adspersum has similar perennial basidiomata without intervening layers of context, and the basidiospores are larger in this species. If the collected basidiomata are too young, molecular tools are always required to be sure of their exact identification [16]. Ganoderma resinaceum, when growing on woody plants in a very humid habitat, sometimes has stipitate basidiomata and presents a thinner context when compared to the specimens usually growing in other habitats [12,17].…”

NMR-Based Characterization of Wood Decay Fungi as Promising Novel Foods: Abortiporus biennis, Fomitopsis iberica and Stereum hirsutum Mycelia as Case Studies

“…The Wild Type (WT) sporophores of A. biennis , F. iberica and S. hirsutum were collected in Italy and strains were isolated in pure culture. As reported in [ 14 ], all the strains were identified both by macro- and micro-morphological cultural characteristics and by molecular analysis of the Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region. The three analyzed strains belong both to the Fungal Research Culture Collection (MicUNIPV) of the Mycology Laboratory at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (DSTA) (University of Pavia, Italy) and MOGU’s fungal strain collection (MFSC).…”