FUNGAL REMOVAL OF WOOD SAPSTAIN CAUSED BY CERATOCYSTIS-COERULESCENS

Although sapstain fungi do not reduce the strength of wood, they disco lor wood and wood products, posing a major economic problem for the wo od industry. The purpose of this study was to determine if metabolites from Bjerkandera adusta and Talaromyces flavus would (1) remove sapst ain in wood caused by Ceratocystis coerulescens and (2) inhibit sapsta in by C. coerulescens. We studied the interaction of the sapstain fung us with the test fungi in dual cultures on agar medium. The metabolite s obtained from the test fungi were examined on pine veneer disks stai ned with C. coerulescens. Our results indicate that the test fungi wer e antagonistic to C. coerulescens. The combination of metabolites prod uced by the antagonists removed sapstain and killed existing fungal gr owth. In future work, we will identify fungal metabolites capable of r emoving sapstain and test their efficacy on sapstained wood.