Synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence microscopy enables multiscale spatial visualization of ions involved in fungal lignocellulose deconstruction.

ABSTRACT: The role of ions in the fungal decay process of lignocellulose biomaterials, and more broadly fungal metabolism, has implications for diverse research disciplines ranging from plant pathology and forest ecology, to carbon sequestration. Despite the importance of ions in fungal decay mechanisms, the spatial distribution and quantification of ions in lignocellulosic cell walls and fungal hyphae during decay is not known. Here we employ synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence microscopy (XFM) to map and quantify physiologically relevant ions, such as K, Ca, Mn, Fe, and Zn, in wood being decayed by the model brown rot fungus Serpula lacrymans. Two-dimensional XFM maps were obtained to study the ion spatial distributions from mm to submicron length scales in wood, fungal hyphae with the dried extr

SUBMITTER: Kirker G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5282557 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature