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Competition and Interactions Between Organisms

             Except for axenic laboratory cultures, there are only a few cases in which a natural substrate remains occupied by only one species. A known case is Oudemansiella mucida in standing, but dead trunks of Fagus sylvatica due to the production of the antifungal compound, mucidin. Instead, nearly every substrate accessible to fungi can support more than one species (Rayner and Boddy 1988), that is, various fungi and bacteria compete for space, nutrients, water, and air.  Each fungus has its own strategy to withstand competition. Competition may occur between species and between mycelia of the same species. As a result of the latter, wood colonized by Trametes versicolor shows that the individual colonies form black barrier (demarcation) lines, where the different mycelia have interacted with each other to inhibit further movement of each mycelium in the region of contact. Different parts of the same mycelium and even adjacent hyphae may compete.  For example, reprodu