ISSN:
1432-5225
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Fishery, Domestic Science, Nutrition
,
Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Production Engineering, Mining and Metallurgy, Traffic Engineering, Precision Mechanics
Notes:
Summary The objectives of this work were to begin developing an experimental system for studying the demethylation of lignin by brown-rot fungi and to examine the influence of selected culture parameters. As substrate for demethylation, we used partially 3-O-demethylated lignin that had been isolated earlier from brown-rotted spruce wood; we remethylated with14CH3I, giving a lignin with both [3-14C]methoxyl and [4-14C]methoxyl groups. This lignin was added to pine wood flakes, which were incubated with selected brown-rot fungi, and the evolved14CO2 was trapped and measured. Of eight fungi examined,Gloeophyllum trabeum andWolfiporia cocos gave the highest rates of mineralization of the14C-methoxyl carbons. With the former but not the latter fungus, methoxyl mineralization was over twice as fast in an atmosphere of O2 than in air. Amending the cultures with ammonium tartrate suppressed mineralization to some extent. Further studies withG. trabeum showed that glutamate lowered the rate of mineralization and that glucose and glycerol sharply suppressed it. Addition of Fe2+ and Mn2+ slightly increased the rate of mineralization. Our results suggest that in unsupplemented cultures the rate-limiting step in methoxyl mineralization is the initial demethylation. Thus the two likely initial C1 products, methanol and formaldehyde (as14C compounds), were mineralized much more rapidly than the methoxyl carbon of the lignin (as was formic acid), and no low molecular weight labeled intermediates from the [14C]-methoxyl lignin accumulated in the cultures. Our results also provide evidence that the spruce lignin was partially polymerized byG. trabeum. Mineralization of the methoxyl carbon of a synthetic [3-14C]-methoxyl lignin was slower than that of the spruce lignin, suggesting either that the synthetic lignin was more recalcitrant or that the [4-14C]methoxyl group in the [3,4-14C]-methoxyl spruce lignin was attacked more readily.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01153559
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