Ergosterol contents of some wood-rotting basidiomycete fungi grown in liquid and solid culture conditions

Ergosterol contents of six wood-rotting basidiomycetes were analyzed under different cultivation conditions. Four white-rot and two brown-rot fungi were cultivated in liquid synthetic medium with low nutrient nitrogen (2 mM) and 0.1% glucose, and ergosterol in mycelial biomasses were measured weekly for 35 days. The highest ergosterol content per fungal dry mass in the white-rot fungi was found in Phanerochaete chrysosporium being 2100 mu g g(-1), while in Ceriporiopsis subvermispora it was 1700 mu g g(-1), Phlebia radiata 700 mu g g(-1), and Physisporinus rivulosus 560 mu g g(-1). In brown-rot fungi the ergosterol content was in Poria placenta 2868 mu g g(-1) and in Gloeophyllum trabeum 3915 mu g g(-1). On agar media, P. chrysosporium and P. radiata reached the highest ergosterol value in 7 days, while in wood block cultures the ergosterol contents were quite stable. The conversion factors for ergosterol-to-fungal biomass varied from 48 and 243, which were lower than values for ascomycetous soil fungi reported in the literature. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.