S. commune NBRC 4928 was subcultured on potato dextrose agar (PDA, Nissui, Tokyo, Japan) plates at 25 C. Mycelial discs, 12 mm in diameter, were prepared as inocula. Thanatephorus cucumeris IWA5b was employed as lignin-degradable fungus for co-culturing with S. commune NBRC 4928. T. cucumeris IWA5b was collected as a spore in environmental air by catching on an agar plate. The spore was incubated to make a colony and then identified as a basidiomycete by observing clamp connection of hyphae. Species of the strain was identified by sequencing the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region in the ribosomal gene (accession No. LC068774).