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.
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