Wood as a hostile habitat for ligninolytic fungi
Résumé
Fungi in dead wood are subject to stressful conditions. To develop, they need to access nutritive substrates, water, oxygen and a matrix to spread. Due to the structural organization of the wood material and its chemical composition, all these parameters could be limiting factors for fungal development and thus use of wood as substrate. Moisture is one of the most important factors limiting fungal growth. Another important feature that affects fungal development is the wood chemistry. Besides the complex constitutive polymers that form a dense network not easily accessible for degradation and thus carbon harvesting, wood contains extractives with antifungal properties. During evolution, wood decay fungi have developed strategies to cope with this stressful environment, making these microorganisms highly resistant to various constraints.