Poultry, Fisheries & Wildlife Sciences
Open Access

White Rot

White-rot fungi are the most effective for delignification due to production of ligninolytic extracellular oxidative enzymes. Lignin degradation by several white-rot fungi, such as Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Pleurotus ostreatus, Coriolus versicolor, Cyathus stercoreus, and Ceriporiopsis subvermispora, have been studied (Martinez et al., 2004; Ruttimann-Johnson, Salas, Vicuna, & Kirk, 1993; Wan & Li, 2012). White-rot fungi degrade lignin leaving decayed wood whitish in color and fibrous in texture. Some white-rot fungi such as C. subvermispora, Phellinus pini, Phlebia spp., and Pleurotus spp. delignify wood by preferentially attacking lignin more readily than hemicellulose and cellulose, leaving enriched cellulose. However, other white-rot fungi such as Trametes versicolor, Heterobasidion annosum, and Irpex lacteus degrade the cell wall components simultaneously 

White-rot fungi (WRF) are a heterogeneous group of fungi that belong to basidiomycetes. More than 90% of all wood-rotting basidiomycetes are of the white-rot type . The WRF are more commonly found on angiosperm than on gymnosperm tree species in nature, and they may cause nonselective or simultaneous rot, whereas some WRF degrade lignin in woody plant cell walls to a higher extent than cellulose, and they are called selective WRF. Litter-decomposing fungi, typically agaric basidiomycetes, grow in the litter layer in forests and grasslands, and their decay process results in the formation of so-called white-rot humus.