FTIR Spectroscopy for Identification and Intra-Species Characterization of Serpula lacrymans

Abstract

The dry rot fungus Serpula lacrymans is the most destructive fungal agent of wood building materials in Europe, Russia, North America, and Japan. The identification of this wood-deteriorating agent and the discrimination of different fungal isolates is very important for the control of buildings in general and for the preservation of cultural heritage in particular. The objective of the study was to develop a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) method coupled with a partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) for the sample preparation and identification of S. lacrymans. Five distinct S. lacrymans strains were analysed and compared to two strains of unrelated fungal species. Different methods of mycelial growth, sample preparation, and FTIR spectral data normalisation were compared. FTIR analysis of a harvested mycelium grown on the surface of a polyether sulfone microfiltration membrane deposited on a malt extract agar medium, followed by vector normalization and PLS-DA statistical analysis, resulted in 100% correct attribution at phylum, species, and strain level, regardless of the type of standardization used. This study confirms the applicability of FTIR spectroscopy for the identification of S. lacrymans and the discrimination of different strains belonging to this species.

Essential oils from Thymus spp. as natural biocide against common brown- and white-rot fungi in degradation of wood products: antifungal activity evaluation by in vitro and FTIR analysis

“…Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy has proved as a reliable tool to characterise the composition of chemically complex structures such as fungi due to its ability to detect simultaneously discrete changes in molecular structure and composition of tissues. It has been applied for the identi cation of bacteria and fungi, to characterise changes in nutrient conditions during the formation of microbial bio lms and to investigate stress-induced molecular changes of the cellular composition of fungi (Orsini et al, 2000;Fischer et al, 2006;Salman et al, 2010;Sompong et al, 2013;Skotti et al, 2014;Gupta et al, 2015;Bekiaris et al, 2020;Barboux et al, 2021). Further, FTIR microscopy has been established for studies of live microorganisms or biomaterials.…”

Bioprospecting of Marine Fungi from Coastal Karnataka Region as Potential Source of Economically Important Enzyme L-Glutaminase and their Comparative Genomic Study

“…51 The dry rot fungus Serpula lacrymans and its intra species characterization was done using FTIR analysis, and study explores the applicability of FTIR in identification and discrimination of different strains of the species. 52 We employed FTIR studies to understand the presence of our enzyme glutaminase in selected fungal culture broths, by analysing the presence of spectral data obtained. Investigation of 15 halophilic bacterial strains isolated from the marine environment that produced extracellular L-glutaminase was done.…”

Once upon a Time, There Was a Piece of Wood: Present Knowledge and Future Perspectives in Fungal Deterioration of Wooden Cultural Heritage in Terrestrial Ecosystems and Diagnostic Tools

“…The changes that occurred reflected both technical challenges, such as the difficulty of identifying wood-rotting fungi from cultures or having reference sequences in databases [176][177][178] and the advancements in molecular techniques with a gradual shift from morphological to molecular identification and from culture-based to high-throughput sequencing. In parallel with these advancements, researchers have explored alternative methods for fungal identification, for example MALDI-TOF [79,179,180] and FTIR [176,181].…”

“…Some authors used FTIR spectroscopy to measure the water gradient (more precisely, hydroxyl groups, OH) between the surface and the inner part of ancient and modern wooden sculptures with the aim of differentiating ancient wooden artefacts from modern ones [234]. This technique was also recently used for the characterization of biodeterioration organisms through the study of the main IR signatures due to the components of the biomass, such as polysaccharides, proteins, and lipids [181].…”