Recent mushroom research in India

摘要

At the centre of research on the science and cultivation of mushrooms in India is the National Research Centre for Mushroom which recently (2000) won the 'Best Institution' Award of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. In its recent Annual Report, research achievements are described under four main headings, Crop Improvement, Crop Production, Crop Protection and Postharvest Technology. As part of the effort to develop genetic resources fungal forays have been carried out in the rainy seasonin the forest areas of Himachal Pradesh during which a hundred or so species were collected and listed. Some of the more important species collected have been described. Attempts to cultivate Volvariella bombycina on sterlised wheat grain, sawdust and supplemented pasteurised compost, despite getting good mycelial growth on some substrates, were unsuccessful in obtaining fruit bodies. Growth studies of Lentinus edodes and L. lateritia produced the best growth on Hyaducks medium. In work on germplasm conservation protocols for DNA isolation, purification, quantification and amplification were standardised. Studies to discover the most suitable methods of germplasm conservation were carried out. Following preservation in liquid nitrogen, higher recoveryrates were obtained from cultures on wheat grain than from mycelial discs taken from WEA medium. Trials of 9 strains of A. bisporus showed brown strains produced higher yields of tough fruit bodies at 14-16 deg C and white strains yield best at 18-22 deg C.