Fungal Mycelium

In general, fungal mycelia are filtered relatively easily, because mycelia filter cake has sufficiently large porosity. Yeast and bacteiia are much more difficult to handle because of thefr small size. Alternative filtration methods, which eliminate the filter cake, are becoming more acceptable for bacterial and yeast separation. Micro-filtration is achieved by developing large cross-flow fluid velocities across the filter surface while the velocity vector normal to the surface is relatively small. Build up of filter cake and problems of high cake resistance are therefore prevented. Micro-filtration is not discussed in this section. 

The bioconversion of (4/ )-(-)-limonene to (4/ )-(-)-a-terpineol by immobilised fungal mycelia of Penicillium digitatum was described more recently [86]. The fungi were immobilised in Calcium alginate beads. These beads remained active for at least 14 days when they were stored at 4°C. a-Terpineol production by the fungus was 12.83 mg/g beads per day, producing a 45.81% bioconversion of substrate. The optimum conversion temperature was 28°C and the optimum pH was 4.5. The highest... 

Blain, J. A., Patterson, J. D., Shaw, C. E., and Akhtar, M. W. Study of bound phospholipase activities of fungal mycelia using an organic solvent system. Lipids 11, 553-560, 1976. 

Table 3.1. Some examples of translocatable and apparently non-translocatable elements within fungal mycelia, based on detection of radioactive- or stable-isotope forms of the elements within fungal structures physically separated from the sources of such elements...

Boswell, G. P., Jacobs, H., Davidson, F. A., Gadd, G. M. Ritz, K. (2003). Growth and function of fungal mycelia in heterogeneous environments. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 65, 447-77. 

Cairney, J. W. G. Burke, R. M. (1996). Physiological heterogeneity within fungal mycelia an important concept for a functional understanding of the ectomycorrhizal symbiosis. New Phytologist, 134, 685-95. 

Olsson, S. Hansson, B. S. (1995). Action potential-like activity found in fungal mycelia is sensitive to stimulation. Naturwissenschaften, 82, 30-1. 

Ritz, K., Millar, S. M. Crawford, J. W. (1996). Detailed visualisation of hyphal distribution in fungal mycelia growing in heterogeneous nutritional environments. Journal of Microbiological Methods, 25, 23—8. 

Davidson, F. A. (1998). Modelling the qualitative response of fungal mycelia to... 

Mechanisms and kinetics of uptake by roots (or fungal mycelia) or leaves (especially in aquatic plants)... 

Table 3.4 Bjerrum s a parameter as calculated from c and x and corresponding properties of the proton. The ligands most often given away by both green plant roots and fungal mycelia produce a 0, making uptake of metal ions less sensitive towards pH changes even though certain of these ligands are fairly readily protonated, i.e. are considerable Brdnsted bases. This does not hold for those amino acids which are employed by grasses, mosses mainly, pointing to decreased selectivity...

Two methods are used to produce sterile cultures of fungal mycelia. 

Whereas transformation has generally been demonstrated — often to quinones — only relatively low levels of mineralization to C02 have frequently been observed, for example in Pleurotus ostreatus (Bezalel et al. 1996a Hofrichter et al. 1998), and it has been shown that a substantial fraction of phenanthrene was nonextractable and presumably bound to fungal mycelia (Bezalel et al. 1996b). 

The extraction of the immunosuppressant drug cyclosporine from the fungal cell mass of Beauvaria nivea provides a classic example of matrix effects (23). The method of pretreatment of the fungal mycelia exhibits a profound effect on the yields and rates of cyclosporine extraction. The extraction of cyclosporine was carried out on different samples of the fungal mycelia subjected to varying... 

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