Nitratreduktion durch pilze und die verwertbarkeit des merkmals für die systematik

Abstract

Nearly 200 species of fungi of various orders has been assayed for presence of nitrate reductase by examining the presence of nitrite in the culture medium. This property seems to be useful for identification purposes in the same way as the widely used Bavendamm-test for extracellular oxidases. A literature survey has also been made of fungi assimilating nitrate-nitrogen and those unable to grow with nitrate as sole source of nitrogen. The data in this paper show that there is a good correlation between the ability to reduce nitrate and the assimilation of nitrate-nitrogen. Most of the Deuteromycetes (14 out of 17 investigated) reduce nitrate, whereas the Basidiomycetes (135 species investigated) generally lack this property, except for few taxa like Lepista (Tricholomataceae; Agaricales). A correlation between nitrate reduction and ecological requirements was shown only for Deuteromycetes, where the pathogenic Dermatophytes do not use nitrate-nitrogen and the nematode trapping Arthrobotrys dactyloides is unable to reduce nitrate.