Efecto de diferentes condiciones de crecimiento en el dimorfismo levadura-micelio de la cepa albina pcf2a29 de la especie ophiostoma piceae

Ophiostoma fungi promote the occurrence of blue stain in coniferous wood, affecting the appearance wood products quality. Thus, different chemical products have been attempted to control them. Biological control of these sapstaining fungi, using albino strains of Ophiostoma looks like a successfully alternative to be applied. However, some Ophiostoma strains present a dimorphic behavior in liquid culture, which make them difficult to work with. Fungal dimorphism is defined as an environmentally and chemically controlled, reversible transformation of the yeast and mycelia morphologies. In this research, a two level factorial design was applied for evaluating the effect of four operative variables on albino strain PcF2A29 (Ophiostoma piceae (Münch) H. & P. Syd.) yeast-like growth a complex liquid medium. The results showed that inoculum size, temperature and their interaction had a statistically significant effect on yeast-like growth of albino strain PcF2A29. The most important effect was inoculum size. This factor explained 53% of the observed variability. The effect of inoculum size on yeast-like growth, phenomenon that is described in the O. piceae species by the first time with this paper, would be associated to quorum sensing activity.