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Decay Resistance of Four Wood Species Treated to Destroy Thiamine. Terry L. Highley, Pathologist, Forest Products Laboratory, Forest Service, USDA, University of Wisconsin, Madison 53705; Phytopathology 60:1660-1661. Accepted for publication 15 June 1970. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-60-1660.

Alkaline treatment of wood at elevated temp to destroy thiamine content rendered the wood resistant to two thiamine-requiring brown-rot fungi, Poria monticola and Lentinus lepideus. Treated wood was not resistant, however, to attack by two thiamine-requiring white-rot fungi, Polyporus versicolor and P. anceps. Putting thiamine back into treated pine blocks failed to overcome the resistance of the blocks to the brown-rot fungus Poria monticola. This result plus the variation in the decay resistance of the treated woods to the other test fungi suggests that the thiamine relationship to decay resistance could be more elusive than anticipated, and that further investigations are needed to ascertain precisely the changes produced by alkaline treating of wood.