Blue-Stain Fungi Research Paper Example

Blue Stain fungus is a soft rot fungus in the genus Chlorociboria. There are two species in this genus that can be found in North America, out of 27 species found in the world. The two in North America are C. aeruginascens and C. aeruginosa. Fifteen species can be found only in New Zealand.  It's most commonly seen as a greenish blue stain on wood, but can also be found rarely as a round cup shaped blue mushroom. These are very small, 2-6 mm in diameter, and hug very closely to the log they are growing from. When the mushrooms age, the edges get wrinkly and flatten out from a cup or goblet shape into a flattened plate shaped circle

They prefer a high humidity environment. Although blue stain fungi is often thought of as a nuisance, staining wood an unpleasant color and many measures are taken to protect lumber from taking on its blue hue, there are also many real and possible uses for it, ranging from the already applied use of its hues in woodworking, which was common in the 14th and 15th centuries, to more hypothetical uses like as an organic semiconductor or a fluorescent labeling agent. 

The reason why the blue stain fungi appear blue on wood is that while mycelium is usually white or clear in most types of fungi, in this type it looks blueish green under certain growth conditions due to the melanin pigment present in the mycelium, called xylindein. The fungal pigment xylindein is responsible for the color of the fruit bodies as well as the discoloration of infested wood. The stained area represents everywhere that Chlorociboria hyphae are present. For an unknown reason, blue stain fungi synthesize melanin in their hyphae. This makes it super easy to identify where the mycelium of the blue stain fungus were growing. Most other mushrooms do not produce pigments in their hyphae, which makes it harder to see their territory. There are many possible uses for this Xylindein, Xylindein has been tried to be synthesized before, and it has not been successful. The inability to synthesize it poses a problem for most practical uses other than in art and woodworking. Some proposed and actual uses are woodworking, fluorescent labeling agent, and even organic semiconductor applications. Also, suggested but more doubtful, preventing seed germination, protecting wood against termites, killing algae, and even fighting cancer. The use of blue stained fungi in woodworking is an actual use, and has been used historically to add a beautiful blue tone to wood.

​​14th and 15th century Renaissance Italian craftsmen used the wood to provide the green colors in their intricate inlaid designs. Blue stain fungus has no effect on strength of the wood, which makes it able to be used in woodworking, it is  incapable of degrading cellulose and lingin. Not all the time does the pigment show up as the greenish blue color, it can also be darker and look almost black. This makes it, so there's a large range of colors for artists and craftspeople to work with to make beautiful designs. They used it in the 14th and 15th centuries by cutting tiny pieces of stained wood and fitting them into beautiful mosaic designs on wooden pieces of furniture. This type of wood is often referred to as spalted wood, and is highly sought after for its beautiful patterns. Spalted wood is highly sought after for modern woodworking too, although spalted woos takes a lot of time to produce, and a way to speed up the process for mass production and sale has not been found, especially in the types of unique patterns that are frequently desired for modern-day woodworking involving the pigment. While often the presence of blue stain fungi decreases the value of the wood due to its discoloration, in this case specific patterns can increase both price and demand. Spalting adds unique patterning and design to wood, which results in a beautiful and entirely one of a kind piece of art, weather thats a guitar, bowl, or anything else. While the pigment may be desired for artistic purposes, in lumber the story is very different.

While the blue stain fungi might not decrease the strength of the wood, it can decrease the price at which it can be sold, as well as several other big problems, most of them related to the aesthetic quality. Wood pulp intended for the production of paper made from wood where the blue stain fungi is present requires more of a bleaching agent to make white paper, increasing the amount of chemicals needed to be used to achieve the same result as if the wood did not have blue stain fungi present. Because of this, a method to help protect wood against these fungi has been important for a while, and many different methods have been used, with varying degrees of success. These methods have included submerging the lumber underwater, since the fungi cannot infest the wood when the wood is 100% (word i can't think of rn?) with water, as well as the lack of oxygen present underwater. Other methods have involved lots of chemicals, which is also undesirable due to the ecological effects and the price of the treatments. An interesting approach to preventing blue stain fungi that is being researched is by introducing  and inoculating a colorless but similar fungi into the wood, called O. pilferum. So far in studies this has proven to be a very efficient method to prevent discoloration of wood, but so far it has not had widespread application in the lumber industry. 

The blue stain fungus has a symbiotic relationship with several types of beetles, depending on the area geographically in which it is located. Southern pine beetles are one of the most common types, while in Canada and more northern parts of the United States the mountain pine beetle is most present. These beetles are called bark beetles, and are the predominant type of beetle which blue stain fungi has a symbiotic relationship with.  While the spores of the blue stain fungus can be carried to new trees by the wind, a way the spores are delivered that is easier and brings them to more ideal trees, the weakened and dying ones, is by being carried over by the type of beetle native to the specific area. The fungi have adapted to latch its spores onto the beetle by making its spores sticky, so it can be carried from tree to tree by the beetles. The beetle also adapted and developed a special repository in its mouth, which offers a second way which the bark beetles carry the spores from tree to tree. When the bark beetles chews through to the phloem of the tree being attacked, this inoculates the blue stain fungi spores into the tree. When this happens to a tree, it dies in a matter of weeks, although its crown may stay green for up to 12 months.  The beetles carry the fungus from tree to tree, and in return, the fungus weakens the trees and makes it easier for the southern pine beetles to attack. Trees rarely survive the stress from this happening. Weakened trees, either weakened from age or damages, or newly dying, are far more susceptible to the beetles, and healthy trees are usually not effected. While the blue stain fungus may not eat away at the structural part of the wood of a tree, which makes it so blue stain fungus affected wood can be used in woodworking, it does block up water carrying vessels inside the tree, and feasts on the sugar in the sap of the tree. This weakens the tree, and holds up the fungi’s part of the symbiotic relationship by making the tree more susceptible to the southern pine beetles. Once a tree has been killed by the combination of the beetle and blue stain fungi, both of the two organisms can use the dead tree as a host, a place which provides food and shelter or housing to both organisms.

Blue stain fungi as an organism has many negative traits, both real, like possible destruction to old and weakened trees in our woodlands, and more surface level like discoloration of wood leading to a lower price for lumber despite the wood having the same structural integrity, but it also adds some beauty to our world. Through beautiful artistic creations made with the uniquely toned wood, to the tiny bright blue mushrooms that can very rarely be found growing on decaying wood in the forests.