Chang-Yun Lee

Determination of Mineral Components in the Cultivation Substrates of Edible Mushrooms and Their Uptake into Fruiting Bodies

The mineral contents of the cultivation substrates, fruiting bodies of the mushrooms, and the postharvest cultivation substrates were determined in cultivated edible mushrooms Pleurotus eryngii, Flammulina velutipes, and Hypsizigus marmoreus. The major mineral elements both in the cultivation substrates and in the fruiting bodies were K, Mg, Ca, and Na. Potassium was particularly abundant ranging 10~13 g/kg in the cultivation substrates and 26~30 g/kg in the fruiting bodies. On the contrary, the calcium content in the fruiting bodies was very low despite high concentrations in the cultivation substrates, indicating Ca in the cultivation substrates is in a less bio-available form or the mushrooms do not have efficient Ca uptake channels. Among the minor mineral elements determined in this experiment, Cu, Zn, and Ni showed high percentage of transfer from the cultivation substrates to the fruiting bodies. It is noteworthy that the mineral contents in the postharvest cultivation substrates were not changed significantly which implies that the spent cultivation substrates are nutritionally intact in terms of mineral contents and thus can be recycled as mineral sources and animal feeds.

Molecular Genetic Classification of Hypsizigus marmoreus and Development of Strain-specific DNA Markers

We have attempted to verify 30 strains of Hypsizigus marmoreus from various mushroom stocks in Korea using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) methodology. Chromosomal DNAs of them were extracted and subjected to PCR analyses with 3 random primers. Each PCR produced approximately 30 distinct PCR bands with the size from 200 bp to 3000 bp. A dendrogram was acquired using the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic average (UPGMA) clustering methodology on the basis of the DNA band pattern. The analysis revealed that 30 strains of H. marmoreus were clustered into two distinct clusters. Cluster 1 contained 3 subgroups while the cluster 2 consisted of rather diverse strains. Interestingly, Hm3-10, a wild strain collected from Deog-Yu mountain, was not included in either clusters, indicative of uniqueness of this strain. We nextly attempted to develop strain-specific DNA markers to verify a specific strain. A unique band in the RAPD gel lane of Hm0-4 was extracted and its sequence was determined. PCR with a primer set from the determined sequence revealed that the primer set gave a 250 bp DNA band only for Hm0-4, indicating that this approach works well for the strain-specific identification of H. marmoreus.

Breeding of new strains of mushroom by basidiospore chemical mutagenesis.

Abstract Chemical mutagenesis of basidiospores of Hypsizygus marmoreus generated new mushroom strains. The basidospores were treated with methanesulfonate methylester, an alkylating agent, to yield 400 mutant monokaryotic mycelia. Twenty fast-growing mycelia were selected and mated each other by hyphal fusion. Fifty out of the 190 matings were successful (mating rate of 26.3%), judged by the formation of clamp connections. The mutant dikaryons were cultivated to investigate their morphological and cultivation characteristics. Mutant strains No. 3 and No. 5 showed 10% and 6% increase in fruiting body production, respectively. Eight mutant strains showed delayed and reduced primordia formation, resulting in the reduced production yield with prolonged cultivation period. The number of the fruiting bodies of mutant No. 31, which displayed reduced primordial formation, was only 15, compared to the parental number of 65. Another interesting phenotype was a fruiting body with a flattened stipe and pileus. Dikaryons generated by mating with the mutant spore No. 14 produced flat fruiting bodies. Further molecular biological studies will provide details of the mechanism. This work shows that the chemical mutagenesis approach is highly utilizable in the development of mushroom strains as well as in the generation of resources for molecular genetic studies.

Mycelial viability and cultivation characteristics of Hypsizygus marmoreus after long-term storage in different conditions

Mycelial viability and cultivation characteristics of strains of Hypsizygus marmoreus after long-term storage were investigated. The experimental conditions were the storage at using a slant culture technique with or without mineral oil, and in liquid nitrogen tank in the presence of 10% glycerol or 10% glycerol with 5% trehalose. The myceila of four strains of H. marmoreus were thawed at 9, 21, 33, and 45 months after beginning of the storage, and then the growth of the mycelia was measured on a PDA plate with serial transfers to new plate for the recovery. The mycelial growth data after 45 months showed that the mycelia were mostly viable but not fully active particularly when they were stored in liquid nitrogen with 10% glycerol. The growth activity could be fully recovered after second transfer to new PDA plate. Cultivation of mushroom fruiting body using the recovered mycelia also demonstrated that the storage methods employed in this work were applicable for the long-term storage of H. marmoreus.

Secondary Structure of the Ribosomal Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) Region of Hypsizygus marmoreus

The ribosomal DNA (rDNA) clusters of Hypsizygus marmoreus 3-10 and H. marmoreus 1-1 were analyzed in this study. The small subunit (SSU) and intergenic spacer 2 (IGS 2) was partially sequenced. The internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS 1), 5.8S, internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS 2), large subunit (LSU), intergenic spacer 1 (IGS 1), and 5S were completely sequenced. The rDNA clusters of H. marmoreus 3-10 and H. marmoreus 1-1 were 7,049 bp in length. The sequence of SSU rDNA, which corresponded to 18S rDNA, was 1,796 bp in length, and the sequence of LSU rDNA, which corresponded to 28S rDNA, was 3,348 bp in length. The ITS region that variable region and IGS region that nontranscribed spacer was 462 bp and 1,290 bp in length. The sequence of 5.8S rDNA and 5S rDNA was 153 bp and 43 bp in length, respectively. The 17 bp of the rDNA cluster in the H. marmoreus 3-10 strain was different to that in the H. marmoreus 1-1 strain, with 2 bp in the SSU, 3 bp in the ITS, 9 bp in the LSU, and 3 bp in the IGS. The analysis of the secondary structure revealed that the ITS regions of H. marmoreus 3-10 and H. marmoreus 1-1 have five stem-loop structures. Interestingly, among these structures, one different nucleotide sequence resulted in a different secondary structure in stem-loop V.

A Phylogenetic Relationship between Foreign and Korean Strains of Flammulina velutipes Identified by rDNA-ITS Sequence Analysis

This study was carried out to investigate the genetic relationship of Flammulina velutipes with other species. The ribosomal DNA cluster containing 4 rRNA genes from F. velutipes 4154 were sequenced. The length of the rDNA cluster sequence was estimated at 7,403 bp long and consisted of 1,806 bp of SSU rDNA, 245 bp of ITS 1 region, 159 bp of 5.8S rDNA, 308 bp of ITS 2 region, 3,402 bp of LSU rDNA, 1,400 bp of IGS 1 region, and 83 bp of 5S rDNA. The F. velutipes 4154 genes were contained in the rDNA cluster of F. velutipes in the order of SSU rDNA - ITS 1 - 5.8S rDNA - ITS 2 - LSU rDNA - IGS 1 - 5S rDNA. The phylogenetic relationships of 20 strains of Tricholomataceae and Physalacriaceae were analyzed by conducting distance analysis using the Neighbor-joining (NJ) method. The 20 strains used in this study were divided into three groups and the strains of the genus Flammulina were related very closely to strains of Physalacria bambusae.