Studies on the phenolic enzymes in the Shorea robusta timber during the pathogenesis by Irpex destruens
Abstract
Phenolic enzymes secreted by the wood-rotting fungus, Irpex destruens, during the pathogenesis in the dead timber Shorea robusta was investigated. The fungus showed the production of two types of phenol oxidases, laccase and tyrosinase, a case of rare occurrence. As because of the production of two types of phenolic enzymes, this bracket fungus was put in between the two types of wood-rotting fungi (white rots and brown rots), and hence, the fungus is said to be an Intermediate type of wood rotting fungus.
Studies on the production of enzymes of phenol oxidase types by the wood-rotting fungi have been carried out since 1906. Buller (1906) investigated the production of phenol oxidases by the wood-rotting fungus Polyporous squamosus Huds. Since then a number of workers have investigated these enzyme systems (Bayliss, 1908, on Polystictus versicolor, Mc Donald, 1937, on Polyporus betulinus, Bull, Fr.; Venkatarayan, 1936, on Ganoderma lucidum; Garren, 1938, on Polyporus obietinus Dicks, Fr. ; Bose and Sarkar, 1937, on eight species of wood-rotting polypores). But little work has been done on the production of phenol oxidases by the wood-rotting fungs, Irpex destruens. Hence the present investigation mainly deals with the phenolic enzyme systems of Irpex destruens.
