Distinct Growth and Secretome Strategies for Two Taxonomically Divergent Brown Rot Fungi.

Brown rot fungi are wood-degrading fungi that employ both oxidative and hydrolytic mechanisms to degrade wood. Hydroxyl radicals that facilitate the oxidative component are powerful nonselective oxidants and are incompatible with hydrolytic enzymes unless they are spatially segregated in wood. Differential gene expression has been implicated in the segregation of these reactions in , but it is unclear if this two-step mechanism varies in other brown rot fungi with different traits and life history strategies that occupy different niches in nature.