Brown rot fungi Rhodonia (Postia) placenta grown on radiata pine modified with different levels of furfuryl alcohol - a wood protection system

The aim of this study was to investigate differential expression profiles of the brown rot fungus Rhodonia placenta (previously Postia placenta) harvested at several time points when grown on radiata pine (Pinus radiata) and radiata pine with three different levels of modification by furfuryl alcohol, an environmentally benign commercial wood protection system (Kebony). In addition to untreated radiata pine, three different levels of furfuryl treatment was used: alcohol to water ratio of 7:10 (WPG37), 4:10 (WPG24) and 1:10 (WPG4). Wood samples were inoculated with Rhodonia placenta (Fr.) Niemelä, K.H. Larss. & Schigel (syn. Postia placenta) strain FPRL 280 (obtained from BAM (Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und –prüfung, 4.1 Division Biodeterioration and Reference Organisms as a dikaryotic strain named BAM 113). For RNAseq analyses samples from the following harvesting points were used: unmodified wood week 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, WPG4 week 3, 6 and 9, WPG24 week 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18. A transcriptome assembly was generated from the HiSeq2500 samples whereas differential expression was done using the NextSeq 500 samples.