Temperature effects on hyphal growth of wood-decay basidiomycetes isolated from Pinus densiflora deadwood

Hyphal growth rates were tested on malt extract agar plates at eight different temperatures (5-40 °C) using 36 isolates of 17 basidiomycete species obtained from Pinus densiflora deadwood in Japan. All isolates of four brown rot species showed optimum growth at 30 °C, whereas the optimum growth temperature of white rot species varied from 20 °C to 30 °C. Analysis using a dataset from four cooler sites showed that brown rot fungi grew more rapidly than white rot fungi at higher temperatures (25 °C, 30 °C, and 35 °C). These results suggest that the hyphal growth of brown rot fungi might be physiologically adapted to higher temperatures than those of white rot fungi among the fungal species inhabiting deadwood of P. densiflora in Japan.