Three-dimensional X-ray imaging and analysis of fungi on and in wood

As wood is prone to fungal degradation, fundamental research is necessary to increase our knowledge aiming at product improvement. Several imaging modalities are capable of visualizing fungi, but the X-ray equipment presented in this paper can envisage fungal mycelium in wood non-destructively in three dimensions with sub-micron resolution. Four types of wood subjected to the action of the white rot fungus Coriolus versicolor (Linnaeus) Quélet (CTB 863 A) were scanned using an X-ray based approach. Comparison of wood volumes before and after fungal exposure, segmented manually or semi-automatically, showed the presence of the fungal mass on and in the wood samples and therefore demonstrated the usefulness of computed X-ray tomography for mycological and wood research. Further improvements to the experimental set-up are necessary in order to resolve individual hyphae and enhance segmentation