Utilisation of organic and inorganic nitrogen sources by Scleroderma sinnamariense Mont. isolated from Gnetum africanum Welw.

The ability of Scleroderma sinnamariense Mont. to utilise some organic and inorganic nitrogen (N) sources for growth was examined in axenic liquid cultures. Pisolithus tinctorius Pers. was included for comparison. Both fungi species produced measurable biomass on all the N sources used in this experiment. The growth of S. sinnamariense on ammonium-N was better than that observed on glycine and bovine serum albumin (BSA), comparable to that on glutamic acid and nitrate, but inferior to that observed on arginine, alanine and peptone. P. tinctorius showed optimal growth on ammonium-N, which was comparable to alanine and glutamic acid but greater than that observed on glycine, arginine, BSA, nitrate and peptone. This Scleroderma isolate thus has the potential to utilise nitrogen from organic substrates and this may be important for the nitrogen nutrition of its ectomycorrhizal host plants in tropical forests.Key words: Scleroderma sinnamariense, organic nitrogen utilisation, ectomycorrhiza