title: Evidence from Serpula lacrymans that 2,5-dimethoxyhydroquinone Is a lignocellulolytic agent of divergent brown rot basidiomycetes.
abstract: Basidiomycetes that cause brown rot of wood are essential biomass recyclers in coniferous forest ecosystems and a major cause of failure in wooden structures. Recent work indicates that distinct lineages of brown rot fungi have arisen independently from ligninolytic white rot ancestors via loss of lignocellulolytic enzymes. Brown rot thus proceeds without significant lignin removal, apparently beginning instead with oxidative attack on wood polymers by Fenton reagent produced when fungal hydroquinones or catechols reduce Fe(3+) in colonized wood. Since there is little evidence that white rot fungi produce these metabolites, one question is the extent to which independent lineages of brown rot fungi may have evolved different Fe(3+) reductants. Recently, the catechol variegatic acid was proposed to drive Fenton chemistry in Serpula lacrymans, a brown rot member of the Boletales (D. C. Eastwood et al., Science 333:762-765, 2011). We found no variegatic acid in wood undergoing decay by S. lacrymans. We found also that variegatic acid failed to reduce in vitro the Fe(3+) oxalate chelates that predominate in brown-rotting wood and that it did not drive Fenton chemistry in vitro under physiological conditions. Instead, the decaying wood contained physiologically significant levels of 2,5-dimethoxyhydroquinone, a reductant with a demonstrated biodegradative role when wood is attacked by certain brown rot fungi in two other divergent lineages, the Gloeophyllales and Polyporales. Our results suggest that the pathway for 2,5-dimethoxyhydroquinone biosynthesis may have been present in ancestral white rot basidiomycetes but do not rule out the possibility that it appeared multiple times via convergent evolution.
authors: Department of Biotechnology, Mahatma Gandhi University, Nalgonda, India.
authors: Premsagar
authors: P
authors: Korripally
authors: Vitaliy I
authors: VI
authors: Timokhin
authors: Carl J
authors: CJ
authors: Houtman
authors: Michael D
authors: MD
authors: Mozuch
authors: Kenneth E
authors: KE
authors: Hammel
mesh_terms: D001487:Basidiomycota / Q000378:metabolism*; D005290:Ferric Compounds / Q000378:metabolism; D006873:Hydroquinones / Q000378:metabolism*; D008031:Lignin / Q000378:metabolism*; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D014934:Wood / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D005290:Ferric Compounds; D006873:Hydroquinones; C036909:lignocellulose; D008031:Lignin
references: Appl Environ Microbiol. 2001 Jun;67(6):2705-11
references: 11375184
references: Biochim Biophys Acta. 1980 Feb 21;628(1):90-7
references: 6892610
references: Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2012 Apr;94(2):323-38
references: 22391968
references: Science. 2012 Jun 29;336(6089):1715-9
references: 22745431
references: Environ Microbiol. 2006 Dec;8(12):2214-23
references: 17107562
references: Microbiology (Reading). 1997 Jan;143(1):259-266
references: 33711854
references: Talanta. 2000 Apr 3;51(4):701-7
references: 18967902
references: Appl Environ Microbiol. 2003 Oct;69(10):6025-31
references: 14532058
references: Annu Rev Plant Biol. 2003;54:519-46
references: 14503002
references: Appl Environ Microbiol. 1999 Feb;65(2):674-9
references: 9925599
references: Fortschr Chem Org Naturst. 1987;51:1-317
references: 3315906
references: FEBS Lett. 1999 Mar 5;446(1):49-54
references: 10100613
references: Appl Environ Microbiol. 2000 Jan;66(1):170-5
references: 10618219
references: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1975 Jul;72(7):2515-9
references: 1058470
references: Appl Environ Microbiol. 2010 Apr;76(7):2091-7
references: 20154118
references: Science. 2011 Aug 5;333(6043):762-5
references: 21764756
references: Chem Biol Interact. 1991;80(1):1-41
references: 1913977
references: Z Naturforsch B. 1968 Aug;23(8):1044-50
references: 4388126