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Production of Extracellular Hydrogen Peroxide and Peroxidase by Wood-Rotting Fungi. Jerome W. Koenigs, Principal Plant Pathologist, Southeastern Forest Experiment Station, USDA Forest Service, Forestry Sciences Laboratory, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709; Phytopathology 62:100-110. Accepted for publication 5 August 1971. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-62-100.

Extracellular H₂O₂ formed by pathogenic and nonpathogenic wood-rotting fungi was detected on two malt extract-heated blood media and by inactivation of a catalase-aminotriazole system. Peroxidase was measured spectrophotometrically. All of 30 species produced some H₂O₂ on blood agar, and 30 of 32 did so from glucose in the catalase-aminotriazole system; brown rot fungi produced more H₂O₂ from glucose than did white rot fungi. No brown rot fungus produced extracellular peroxidase in 3 weeks, but individual isolates of Lentinus lepideus and Coniophora puteana did so later; 11 of 23 species of white rot fungi secreted peroxidase. This appears to be the first report of the formation of free extracellular H₂O₂ by fungi. This H₂O₂ may be involved in plant pathogenesis and in degradation of plant constituents by wood-destroying fungi.