Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T15:14:41.505Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Growth characteristics, nitrogen uptake and enzyme activities of the nitrate-utilising ectomycorrhizal Scleroderma verrucosum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 1999

D. PRIMA PUTRA
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Biologie Forestière associé INRA, Université de Nancy I, BP 239, 54506 Vandœuvre-les-Nancy Cédex, France
A. BERREDJEM
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Biologie Forestière associé INRA, Université de Nancy I, BP 239, 54506 Vandœuvre-les-Nancy Cédex, France
M. CHALOT
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Biologie Forestière associé INRA, Université de Nancy I, BP 239, 54506 Vandœuvre-les-Nancy Cédex, France
B. DELL
Affiliation:
School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Murdoch University, Perth, W.A. 6150, Australia
B. BOTTON
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Biologie Forestière associé INRA, Université de Nancy I, BP 239, 54506 Vandœuvre-les-Nancy Cédex, France
Get access

Abstract

The growth characteristics and uptake capacities for NO3 and NH4+, as well as activities of nitrogen assimilating-enzymes have been determined in Scleroderma verrucosum. Biomass, grown on agar or liquid MMN media, was higher on nitrate. When S. verrucosum was grown in the presence of equal amounts of ammonium and nitrate, uptake rate for NH4+ was considerably higher than that of NO3. In addition, it was found that a limitation in ammonium concentration was a prerequisite for nitrate uptake. Nitrate reductase was stimulated when the fungus was transferred from ammonium to nitrate containing media, indicating that the enzyme was inducible by nitrate and repressed by ammonium. Glutamine synthetase and NAD-glutamate synthase activities were clearly detected in S. verrucosum, while the NADP-glutamate dehydrogenase was almost undetectable. This is consistent with the view that ammonium assimilation occurs through the GS/GOGAT cycle in S. verrucosum.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
The British Mycological Society 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)