Phenotypic classes of phenoloxidase-negative mutants of the lignin-degrading fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium.

This paper reports the isolation of phenoloxidase-negative mutants of the white-rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium and the results of a survey of idiophasic functions among these mutants. The mutant strains were isolated from a medium containing o-anisidine after gamma irradiation of wild-type spores and fell into four classes, divided by the manner in which they mineralized 14C-lignin wheat lignocellulose. Examples are strain LMT7, which degraded lignin at a rate similar to that of the wild type; strain LMT26, in which degradation was enhanced; strain LMT16, whose degradation rate was apparently unaffected, although the onset of lignin attack was delayed compared with that in the wild type; and strain LMT24, which was unable to evolve significant amounts of 14CO2 from the radiolabeled substrate. The mutants were not necessarily defective in other functions associated with idiophasic activities (intracellular cyclic AMP levels, sporulation, extracellular glucan production, veratryl alcohol synthesis). We conclude that phenoloxidase activity as detected by the o-anisidine plate test is not necessary for lignin degradation. In addition, mutations resulting in the loss of lignin-degrading ability were not necessarily pleiotropic with other idiophasic functions.