The blue pigment and mucilage of Schizophyllum commune.

During the L-malate production through CO2-fixing process by Schizophylium commune, a blue coloration was seldom seen. When the coloration occurred within 6days after inoculation, the malate production was markedly reduced, and at the same time the sugar consumption was somewhate lowered. The more earlier the colora tion occurred, the more marked was the decrease of L-malate pro duciton. The addition of thiamine, lipoic acid and pantothenic acid caused the stimulation of sugar utilization and the inhibition of malate production, but the blue coloration caused the lowering of the former and the enhancing of the latter. The inhibitory effect of Cu2+ on the malate production was not affected by the blue pigmentation. The addition of an ethanolic extract of the blue mycelia caused marked decrease of malate production. When the ethano lic extract was converted to a brown red substance during evapora tion of ethanol, such effect of addition was not observed. The blue pigment may promote the reverse reaction of phos phoenolpyruvate carboxylation. When mucilage was produced in the medium, an increase of L-malate production was observed.