Improvement of Black Mushroom (<I>Lentinus edodes</I> (Berk.) Sing) by Single Spore Hybridization

Abstract

Mycelia of black mushroom (Shiitake mushroom) grown on agar media at pH 5.0 had better growth rate than those grown at pH 6.5 and 3.5 respectively. However, those grew for 30 days in liquid media at pH 3.5 gave the clearest electrophoretic zymogram of esterase isozymes. Fourteen strains of dikaryotichybrids were obtianed from the hybridizations of 7 monokaryons each from L1 and L2. Only seven hybrid strains were able to produce fruit-bodies. The hybrid of H7 gave higher yield but not significant difference than L1 and L2. H10 gave good quality of fruit bodies but the yield was lower than L1 and L2. Electrophoretic zymogram of esterase isozymes alone was not suficient to show the differences among the progenies. They did not have linear relationship between the growth rates of the coupled monokaryotic mycelia and the hybrid dikaryotic ones.