Transformation of steroids by fungal spores

Summary The steroid-hydroxylating activity during spore swelling prior to germination (I), during germ tube formation (II) and during branching of the growth hyphae (III) is two to five times that of the mycelium (IV) and control spores. The increased steroid-transforming activity is not correlated with the overall degradation of free amino acid pools but only with that of alanine, glutamate, arginine and proline. A higher ratio NADPH:(NADP⁺+NADPH) was observed in development phases I, II, and III, which indicates a possible role of alanine, glutamate and other amino acids decomposed via glutamate, in NADPH generation and steroid-hydroxylase activation.