RED PIGMENT FORMATION BY INTERACTION OF MOLDS PART 4 INTERACTION BETWEEN P. VERRUCULOSUM AND VARIOUS MOLDS

Abstract

Investigations were made on the phenomenon of red pigment formation occurring in co-biontic cultures of Penicillium verruculosum with various other molds belonging to the genera Aspergillus, Rhizopus, Mucor and those belonging to the classes Deuteromycetes and Basidiomycetes.
Many species of Aspergillus were found to induce the pigment formation in co-cultures with several strains of P. verruculosum. An exception was Aspergillus tamarii which produced yellow pigment(s) in its mycelia under the same condition. The red pigment formation was seldom observed in the combinations of P. verruculosum with some species of Rhizopus and Mucor. It occurred occasionally in the combinations of various species of Deuteromycetes with strain I.A.M. 7073 of P. verruculosum, but scarcely with other strains of P. verruculosum. Strains I.A.M. 7064 and 7073 of P. verruculosum produced the red pigments when grown together with various molds belonging to Basidiomycetes. Some species, especially Glieophyllum sepiarium and Daedalea gercina, produced yellow or brown pig-ment(s) at the contact margin of their colonies with that of P. verruculosum.
Thus, the formation of red pigments by P. verruculosum in its cobiontic cultures with other molds was found to be a phenomenon of fairly common occurrence.