The dark side of fungal competition and resource capture in wood: Zone line spalting from science to application

• DOI: 10.1016/j.matdes.2021.109480
• Publication Date: 2021-01-20T16:41:42Z
• Authors: Hugh Morris; Kevin T. Smith; Seri C. Robinson; Maximilian Göttel...; Siegfried Fink; Francis W.M.R. Sc...
• Keywords: Wood industry; Engineered wood; Line (geometry); Pine wood

On wood surfaces and in planar section, zones lines appear as narrow sharply delineated dark within visibly altered ("spalted") by the decay process. In intact wood, zone define an irregular volume of decaying wood. They are primarily aggregations melanised hyphae that enclose being decayed a single genetic individual fungus. industry for speciality products, highly valued, especially decorative pieces produced from turnery. While commonly found naturally infected they can also be induced under controlled conditions. Although with great economic potential application, there is currently no spalting process to produce on commercial scale niche furniture construction markets. Successfully defined timeframe meets expectations requires knowledge fungal species, colonisation strategies, processes along behaviour (i.e. its hygroscopicity), anatomy mechanical properties relation decay. This review identifies current limitations zone-line looks at novel approach inducing combining individuals same enabling operator homogenise method.