Fungistatic effects of purified conifer tannins against five wood-decaying fungi
: Thitz, Paula; Karonen, Maarit; Barbero-López, Aitor; Haapala, Antti; Virjamo, Virpi
Publisher: Elsevier BV
: 2026
Fungal Ecology
: 101499
: 81
: 1754-5048
: 1878-0083
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.funeco.2026.101499
: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.funeco.2026.101499
: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/515954112
Success of saprotrophic fungi in wood requires resilience against plant defenses such as condensed tannins, but few studies quantify the variability in fungal tolerance while using well-characterized defence compounds purified from authentic sources. To investigate the antifungal activity of condensed tannins, we quantified the bioactivity of conifer tannins from Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and Norway spruce (Picea abies) against five saprotrophs. Condensed tannins from conifer barks and from Scots pine needles showed moderate antifungal activities despite their low contents, and tannin structure affected their efficacy against the fungi. Fungal sensitivity to condensed tannins was species-specific but did not vary systematically between rot types, indicating that specialization of brown-rot fungi on conifers does not imply better or worse tolerance to conifer tannins compared to non-specialized white-rot fungi. Despite the resilience of some saprotrophs, our analysis suggests generalized antifungal activity of condensed tannins against wood-decaying fungi.
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Funding: This work was supported by personal funding of The Finnish Society of Forest Science to P.T. (grant 20210013) and the SLUSH Slush Skolar award for 2016 to V.V. A.B.-L. would like to acknowledge the support provided by Niemi Foundation (grant 20220070).
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