An integrated study of individualism in Lentinula edodes in nature and its implication for cultivation strategy

A new species of Lentinula (Agaricales) from Central America

“…) Pegler, several distinguishable morphological variants occur, which while sexually intercompatible (Mori et al, 1974;Shimomura et al, 1992) produce identifiable RFLP signatures (Nicholson et al, 1997) and definite phylogenetic ITS-based lineages (Hibbett et al, 1998). These Old World taxa have received much attention because of their economic importance (Chiu et al, 1999;Hibbett and Donoghue, 1996;Royse and May, 1987) along with morphological and molecular revisions to assess their taxonomic circumscription (Molina et al, 1992;Pegler, 1975Pegler, , 1983.…”

Themes for mushroom exploitation in the 21st century: Sustainability, waste management, and conservation.

“…L. edodes utilizes basidiospore dispersal for species propagation. Random mating events among the haploid basidiospore germlings in a wood log take place in the wild, and this leads to several individuals in a log (Chiu et al, 1999) (Fig. 3A).…”

“…In a mushroom farm that practises the outdoor wood-log system, L. edodes mushrooms are harvested after the partial veil is open, exposing the maturing gills. Basidiospores then become a contaminating source and lead to an unpredictable yield in later flushes as a result of genetic heterogeneity instead of strain degeneration (Chiu et al, 1999). Furthermore, an outdoor mushroom farm system also creates a great source for spreading the genome of the cultivar, which thus dilutes and competes with the wild germ plasm (Hibbett and Donoghue, 1996).…”

“…The population ecology of L. edodes was first revealed through an integrated approach of conventional and molecular markers (Chiu et al, 1999). At present, we turn our attention to G. lucidum, a plant pathogen, and we want to understand its relationship with its rest of the ecosystem.…”

“…A fungal protoplast/spheroplast is a viable cytoplasm enclosed by a cell membrane with remnants of cell wall. Young mycelia or the immature gills or spore germlings are good materials for protoplasting (Chiu et al, 1999). Protoplast technology has advanced basic studies in population genetics, fungal karyotype, and even sexuality for the economically important specialty mushrooms such as L. edodes and V. volvacea (Chiu and Moore, 1999b;Maeta et al, 1988;Ohmasa et al, 1987).…”