Lignocellulolysis by ascomycetes (fungi) of a saltmarsh grass (smooth cordgrass)

Lignocellulose (LC) makes up greater than 70% of the mature shoots of the prodigiously photosynthetically productive saltmarsh grass Spartina alterniflora. Naturally decaying shoots of this cordgrass were examined by transmission electron microscopy (after high-pressure freezing and freeze-substitution) as a means of directly detecting lysis of the LC-rich tissues. Portions of the cordgrass were selected that contained ascomata (sexual reproductive structures) of only one of each of four species of fungi (Kingdom Fungi; Subdivision Ascomycotina): Phaeosphaeria spartinicola and Buergenerula spartinae from leaf blades, Phaeosphaeria spartinae from leaf sheaths, and Passeriniella obiones from naked stems. All four of the ascomycetes were LC-lytic. Phaeosphaeria spartinicola caused both thinning of LC-rich secondary walls of fiber cells from cell lumina outwards (type 2 soft rot, akin to white rot) and digestion extending from hyphae within longitudinal cavities in the secondary walls (type 1 soft rot). The other three species caused either one or the other type of soft rot. Bacterial erosion of cordgrass cells was found only in the samples of naked stems. Ascomycetous decomposers of standing-dead grasses may have potential for biotechnological applications involving alterations of lignocellulose or toxic polyphenolic substances.