Polyporus alveolaris

Abstract: Thirty wood-rotting basidiomycetes, most of them causing white rot in wood, were isolated from fruiting bodies growing on decaying wood from the Sierra de Ayllon (Spain). The fungi were identified on the basis of their morphological characteristics and compared for their ability to decolorize Reactive Black 5 and Reactive Blue 38 (as model of azo and phthalocyanine type dyes, respectively) at 75 and 150 mg/L. Only eighteen fungal strains were able to grow on agar plates in the presence of the dyes and only three species (Calocera cornea, Lopharia spadicea, Polyporus alveolaris) decolorized efficiently both dyes at both concentrations. The ligninolytic activities, involved in decolorization dyes (laccases, lignin peroxidases, Mn-oxidizing peroxidases), were followed in glucose basal medium in the presence of enzyme inducers. The results indicate a high variability of the ligninolytic system within white-rot basidiomycetes. These fungal species and their enzymes can represent new alternatives for the study of new biological systems to degrade aromatic compounds causing environmental problems.

Abstract: Polyporus alveolaris (DC. : Fr.) Bondartsev & Singer is a species of warm-temperate climate, widely distributed throughout southern Europe, Asia and North America (Gilbertson & Ryvarden 1987, Ryvarden & Gilbertson 1994, Nunez & Ryvarden 1995, 2001). In the monograph of Polish polypores, Domanski et al. (1967) mentioned P alveolaris among the species whose finding in Poland is hardly probable. However, some southern species have been found in Poland in subsequent years, for instance P rhizophilus (Pat.) Sacc. and Oligoporus obductus (Berk.) Gilb. & Ryvarden, as well as P alveolaris. The map in Ryvarden and Gilbertson (1994) showed the species to exist in Poland, but this record was not accompanied with the reference of citation or herbarium specimen. It seems that the first published record of P alveolaris in Poland, deriving from year 2000, was given by Friedrich and Orzechowska (2002). However, this is not the sole collection of the fungus in the country since there are numerous unpublished findings of this species from 1995 onwards, collected in Tarnow town in southern Poland. My paper provides information on these collections. The morphology, ecology and distribution of P. alveolaris are here outlined based on specimens and observations from Poland.