Elemental uptake and accumulation by wood decay fungi in relation to their nutrition strategy, rot type and mineral profile of the colonized wood

The uptake and accumulation of essential and toxic elements by wood decay fungi (WDF) are complex. We examined the mineral profile of 13 WDF colonizing coniferous and deciduous trees. To illustrate the role of nutritional strategies and rot type in selected elements uptake and accumulation, four fungi species differing in their nutrition strategy and the type of decay, colonizing only conifers were selected: two white rot: saprotrophic Pseudohydnum gelatinosum, and parasitic Phellinus pini and two brown rot, saprotrophic/parasitic Phaeolus schweinitzii and saprotrophic Tapinella atrotomentosa. The obtained results revealed that the concentration of most selected major elements (K, Mg, Na, P) in the sporocarps of the two saprotrophic WDF species was significantly higher than in the parasitic or saprotrophic/parasitic ones and that the concentration in the colonized wood located under the sporocarp projecting from the trunk or root. Furthermore, it was found that white rot fungi, independent of their nutritional strategy, accumulated significantly more of most selected minor (B, Cu, Fe, Ni, Zn) and toxic (Al, As, Cd, Pb, Tl) elements in their sporocarps than brown rot species. These last two rules concerned WDF species colonizing coniferous trees but also included WDF species growing on deciduous trees.
Hence, obtained, novel results of this paper demonstrated that the mineral nutrition of WDF, mainly colonizing coniferous trees, may be influenced by (1) fungus nutrition strategy, (2) the type of decay - involved in the preferential decomposition of specific cell wall components and fungus demand for given element, involved in wood CWs decomposition strategy and (3) to a lesser extent by the elements concentration in the wood samples.