Production of (+)-globulol needle crystals on the surface mycelium of Quambalaria cyanescens

The structure of unique colorless needle crystals growing from the surface mycelium of the basidiomycete Quambalaria cyanescens and identified as (+)-globulol was followed by mass spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, and polarimetry. The mechanism of (+)-globulol fragmentation is proposed based on collision induced dissociation mass spectrometry. X-Ray analysis revealed that crystal packing is governed by hydrogen bond O-H·····O connecting the molecules into an infinite helix along a 3-fold screw axis propagating along the longest dimension of the needle crystal ( c -axis of the unit cell). The X-ray diffraction data correspond well with the proposed structure determined by mass spectrometry.