Abstract
CONSIDERABLE interest has been aroused by the researches of Rayner1 and Neilson Jones2 on a growth failure of conifers at Wareham Heath, Dorset. These workers have demonstrated that this growth failure is associated with the development, in the soil, of a definite toxicity to the mycorrhizal fungi normally associated with these trees, and have presented convincing evidence that the toxicity is of biological origin. Neilson Jones has suggested that it may be due to production of hydrogen sulphide by aerobic sulphate-reducing bacteria. We have now been able to show that the toxicity may be due, at least in part, to the production of fungistatic organic substances by certain Penicillium spp. characteristic of the Wareham soil microflora.
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References
Rayner, M. C., Forestry, 8, 96 (1934); 10, 1 (1936); 13, 19 (1939); 15, 1 (1941).
Neilson Jones, W., J. Agric. Sci., 31, 379 (1941).
Dutcher, J. D., J. Bact., 42, 816 (1941).
Johnson, J. R., Bruce, W. F., and Dutcher, J. D., J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 65, 2005 (1943).
Brian, P. W., Nature, 154, 667 (1944).
Newman, A. S., and Norman, A. G., Soil Sci., 55, 377 (1943).
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BRIAN, P., HEMMING, H. & MCGOWAN, J. Origin of a Toxicity to Mycorrhiza in Wareham Heath Soil. Nature 155, 637–638 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155637a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/155637a0
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