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Lignin in woody tissues after chemical pretreatment and bacterial attack

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Summary

Tangential latewood sections (60 μm) of Scots pine sapwood were differently treated with chlorite. The subsequently incubated two strains of Bacillus polymyxa caused a weight loss up to about 25%, including a loss of lignin of about 42%.

UV-microspectrophotometry of 1 μm-cross-sections prepared from the cultured woody tissues demonstrated that bacteria caused neither quantitative nor qualitative changes of the remaining lignin.

The lignin, which was dissociated from the pretreated woody cell wall by bacteria, could not be respired, suggesting that the lignin is a ‘ballast’ to these bacteria that inhibits the dissimilation of the carbohydrates in the wood.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ordinariat für Holzbiologie der Universität Hamburg, Hamburg-Reinbek, Federal Republic of Germany

    O. Schmidt & J. Bauch

  2. Institut für Holzbiologie und Holzschutz der Bundesforschungsanstalt für Forst- und Holzwirtschaft, Hamburg-Reinbek, Federal Republic of Germany

    O. Schmidt & J. Bauch

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  1. O. Schmidt
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  2. J. Bauch
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We appreciate the financial support by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Thanks are due to Mrs. R. Endeward for her assistance during the microspectrophotometric evaluations and to Mr. U. Engel and Dr. O. Faix for carrying out the IR-measurements

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Schmidt, O., Bauch, J. Lignin in woody tissues after chemical pretreatment and bacterial attack. Wood Sci.Technol. 14, 229–239 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00350571

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