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Mushrooms have been valued as food and health supplements by humans for centuries. They are rich in dietary fiber, essential amino acids, minerals, and many bioactive compounds, especially those related to human immune system functions. Mushrooms contain diverse immunoregulatory compounds such as terpenes and terpenoids, lectins, fungal immunomodulatory proteins (FIPs) and polysaccharides. The distributions of these compounds differ among mushroom species and their potent immune modulation activities vary depending on their core structures and fraction composition chemical modifications. Here we review the current status of clinical studies on immunomodulatory activities of mushrooms and mushroom products. The potential mechanisms for their activities both in vitro and in vivo were summarized. We describe the approaches that have been used in the development and application of bioactive compounds extracted from mushrooms. These developments have led to the commercialization of a large number of mushroom products. Finally, we discuss the problems in pharmacological applications of mushrooms and mushroom products and highlight a few areas that should be improved before immunomodulatory compounds from mushrooms can be widely used as therapeutic agents.

BackgroundChinese bayberry (Myrica rubra Sieb. & Zucc.) is an important subtropical evergreen fruit tree in southern China. Generally dioecious, the female plants are cultivated for fruit and have been studied extensively, but male plants have received very little attention. Knowledge of males may have a major impact on conservation and genetic improvement as well as on breeding. Using 84 polymorphic SSRs, we genotyped 213 M. rubra individuals (99 male individuals, 113 female varieties and 1 monoecious) and compared the difference in genetic diversity between the female and the male populations.ResultsNeighbour-joining cluster analysis separated M. rubra from three related species, and the male from female populations within M. rubra. By structure analysis, 178 M. rubra accessions were assigned to two subpopulations: Male dominated (98) and Female dominated (80). The well-known cultivars ‘Biqi’ and ‘Dongkui’, and the landraces ‘Fenhong’ are derived from three different gene pools. Female population had a slightly higher values of genetic diversity parameters (such as number of alleles and heterozygosity) than the male population, but not significantly different. The SSR loci ZJU062 and ZJU130 showed an empirical Fst value of 0.455 and 0.333, respectively, which are significantly above the 95 % confidence level, indicating that they are outlier loci related to sex separation.ConclusionThe male and female populations of Chinese bayberry have similar genetic diversity in terms of average number of alleles and level of heterozygosity, but were clearly separated by genetic structure analysis due to two markers associated with sex type, ZJU062 and ZJU130. Zhejiang Province China could be the centre of diversity of M. rubra in China, with wide genetic diversity coverage; and the two representative cultivars ‘Biqi’ and ‘Dongkui’, and one landrace ‘Fenhong’ in three female subpopulations. This research provides genetic information on male and female Chinese bayberry and will act as a reference for breeding programs.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-015-1602-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The genetic diversity, relationship and molecular identification of 15 well known, widely planted traditional Chinese elite tea genetic resources [Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze] preserved in the China National Germplasm Hangzhou Tea Repository in the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences located in Zhejiang province, China, were investigated using RAPD markers. A total of 1050 bands with an average of 52.5 bands per primer, 70 bands per genetic resource were generated by the 20 selected primers from the 15 tea genetic resources. In the total of 137 amplified products, 129 were polymorphic, corresponding to 94.2% genetic diversity. The relative frequency of polymorphic products was from 0.24 to 0.83, with an average of 0.47. In general, this average frequency was relatively high. The genetic distances among the genetic resources were from 0.16 to 0.62, with an average of 0.37. The 15 tea genetic resources were grouped into three groups by UPGMA cluster analysis based on RAPD data. By using the presence of 20 unique RAPD markers and the absence of 11 unique markers, all the 15 investigated tea genetic resources could be easily identified. RAPD markers provided a practical method not only to evaluate the genetic diversity and relationship, but also to identify tea genetic resources.

In basidiomycete fungi, the number of nuclei and their ploidy level per nucleus can vary tremendously among species; however, within species, nuclear number and ploidy levels are traditionally considered fixed in their vegetative hyphae. In the edible mushroom Lentinula edodes, the hyphae are classified as either monokaryotic or dikaryotic, with each monokaryotic hyphal cell containing one haploid nucleus, and each dikaryotic hyphal cell containing two haploid nuclei. The dikaryotic hyphae are the results of mating between two genetically distinct monokaryons with different mating types. In this study, we examined the nuclear number and size (a potential correlate to ploidy) of L. edodes mycelia throughout its vegetative growth. We found that the number of nuclei within individual hyphal cells varied widely from non-nucleated to uninucleated, dinucleated, and multinucleated. Additionally, different nuclei within the same cell appeared very different in size, with a maximum nucleus cross-sectional area of 4.94 μm2 and the minimum nucleus cross-sectional area at only 0.37 μm2. Moreover, as culture time increased, more cells appeared to be devoid of any nuclei, with transmission electron microscopy and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) assays of late-stage cultures showing autophagosomes fusing and dissolving the nuclei and resulting in a large number of TUNEL-positive DNA fragments in non-nucleated cells. These results indicated that non-nucleated cells were likely caused by autophagy and apoptosis-like activities within aging L. edodes hyphae.

Abstract. Cucurbitacin E is an important member of the cucurbitacin family and exhibits inhibitory effects in various types of cancer. Cucurbitacin is a potential antineoplastic drug; however, its anticancer effect in human prostate cancer (PC) remains unknown. The aim of the present study was to determine whether the effect of cucurbitacin E on the cell viability and apoptosis of the human PC cell line, LNCaP, was mediated by cofilin-1-and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). The results of the present study demonstrated that cucurbitacin E significantly exhibited cytotoxicity, suppressed cell viability (P<0.0001) and induced apoptosis (P=0.0082) in LNCaP cells. In addition, it was demonstrated that treatment with cucurbitacin E significantly induced cofilin-1 (P=0.0031), p-mTOR (P=0.0022), AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK; P=0.0048), cellular tumor antigen p53 (p53; P=0.0018) and caspase-9 (P=0.0026) protein expression in LNCaP cells, suggesting that cucurbitacin E exerts its effects on LNCaP cells through cofilin-1, mTOR, AMPK, p53 and caspase-9 signaling. These results suggested that cucurbitacin E maybe used as a therapeutic agent in the treatment of human PC.

Lentinula edodes is a tetrapolar basidiomycete with two haploid nuclei in each cell during most of their life cycle. Understanding the two haploid nuclei genome structures and their interactions on growth and fruiting body development has significant practical implications, especially for commercial cultivars. In this study, we isolated and assembled the two haploid genomes from a commercial strain of L. edodes using Illumina, HiFi, and Hi-C technologies. The total genome lengths were 50.93 Mb and 49.80 Mb for the two monokaryons SP3 and SP30, respectively, with each assembled into 10 chromosomes with 99.63% and 98.91% anchoring rates, respectively, for contigs more than 100 Kb. Genome comparisons suggest that two haploid nuclei likely derived from distinct genetic ancestries, with ~30% of their genomes being unique or non-syntenic. Consistent with a tetrapolar mating system, the two mating-type loci A (matA) and B (matB) of L. edodes were found located on two different chromosomes. However, we identified a new but incomplete homeodomain (HD) sublocus at ~2.8 Mb from matA in both monokaryons. Our study provides a solid foundation for investigating the relationships among cultivars and between cultivars and wild strains and for studying how two genetically divergent nuclei coordinate to regulate fruiting body formation in L. edodes.

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