Evidence for the Presence of Hyphae and Fruiting Body Calcium Oxalate Crystallites in Schizophyllum commune

Abstract

Biomineralization is a phenomenon in which organisms form crystals. Studies have shown that many fungi have the ability to biomineralize, it can exhibit calcium oxalate crystals on their hyphae and fruiting body. Schizophyllum commune is a common saprophytic fungus distributed all over the world, but there is little research on its biomineralization. In this paper, S. commune fruiting body from three different provinces of China were collected, and isolation for hyphal cultured to obtain several samples. Utilizing light microscope, FE-SEM, and EDAX, the existence of crystals on the fruiting body and mycelium of each strain was found, and their morphological characteristics and ion content were analyzed. It was ultimately established that biomineralization occurs on S. commune.