XVI International Botanical Congess

SC3 is the major hydrophobin produced and secreted into the growth medium by the fungus Schizophyllum commune when grown as a monokaryon in liquid culture. In addition to SC3, a 17 kiloDalton protein of unknown function and a high molecular weight polysaccharide schizophyllan are present in this fungal culture medium. We have developed a procedure which facilitates the isolation of each of the fungal culture supernatant biopolymers without having to induce hydrophobin aggregation in solution. Our results indicate that hydrophobin is necessary and sufficient to form a coating on a hydrophobic surface that is resistant to removal by the surfactant SDS, however, both hydrophobin and schizophyllan are required to stably modify a hydrophilic surface.