A step towards a better understanding of fungal colonization of modified wood - QRT-PCR studies

IRG/WP 08-10653

G Alfredsen, A PilgÄrd, A Hietala

The area of wood protection is in a period of change. New wood protection systems have been developed while their mode of action remains insufficiently understood. The development of molecular methods provides potential tools to investigate the interaction between modified wood and decay fungi. One small step to tackle some of the unsolved questions about the mode of action of modified wood is taken in this study. A specific and quantitative real-time PCR (QRT-PCR) assay was now established for identifying and quantifying early stages of fungal colonisation in modified wood and for profiling growth dynamics of the white-rot fungus Trametes versicolor through different stages of decay. QRT-PCR of colonisation of three different wood modification systems (acetylation, furfurylation, thermal modification), two reference treatments (Cu-HDO, CCA) and Scots pine sapwood as control was performed. Incubation time was 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 weeks. While the fungal colonisation in untreated control samples showed a continuous increase during the experimental period, the amount of fungal DNA in modified wood had an initial peek after two weeks, followed by a gradual decline. The furfurylated samples had lower fungal colonisation than all the other treatments except for Cu-HDO. In the reference samples of copper nearly no fungal colonisation was found at all during the study period of 10 weeks. In the CCA samples there was an initial colonization peek at 2 weeks, but for the remaining part of the experimental period the colonization level remained very low.


Keywords: acetylation, colonisation, DNA, furfurylation, thermal modification, quantitative real-time PCR, Trametes versicolor

Conference: 08-05-25/29, Istanbul, Turkey


Download document (42 kb)
free for the members of IRG. Available if purchased.

Purchase this document