Dry rot be more distinctive in these species than water translocation. Water translocated in this fashion carries nutrients to the extremities of the organism; not, as is sometimes inferred, to simply render dry timber wet enough to attack. Coggins goes into more detail about water movement in "Serpula lacrymans". The perpetual saturation of wood with water also inhibits dry rot, as does perpetual dryness. "Dry rot" would appear to be a paradoxical term seemingly indicating decay of a substance by a fungus without the presence of water. However, its historical usage dates back to the distinction between decay of cured wood in
Atromentin 4-HPP to observe the formation of atromentin. This was followed by characterization of the enzyme GreA in "Suillus grevillei", six (InvA1-6, of which InvA1, 2 and 5 were functional) in "Paxillus involutus", and NPS3 from "Serpula lacrymans". In addition, there is another adjacent and conserved gene encoding for an alcohol dehydrogenase/oxidoreductase whose function is unclear. In most cases the clustered biosynthetic genes are found orthologous in basidiomycetes. A common promoter motif was found shared between the atromentin synthetase and aminotransferase of 23 different atromentin-producing basidiomycetes that was in almost all cases absent from the alcohol dehydrogenase, indicating co-regulation of the