Oyster mushroom with short cropping duration and good taste developed through mono-monokaryon hybridization

The development of short cropping duration oyster mushroom having good taste is one of the important needs of mushroom growers. Several Pleurotus spp. are long cropping duration in nature. Recently, we obtained Pleurotus djamor strain woody1 exhibiting a short cropping duration of 30 days and cultivated throughout the year, but it has a moderately acceptable taste. One of the cultivated Pleurotus spp. such as P. djamor strain MDU1 has good taste and is cultivated throughout the year but is a long cropping duration strain. Thus, genetic improvement of P. djamor was carried out by hybridization between these two strains by anastomosis. Monokaryons of parental strains showed variation in time required for germination – i.e. basidiospores of P. djamor strain woody1 germinated and developed monokaryotic colonies in six days, whereas that of P. djamor strain MDU1 developed monokaryotic colonies in eight days of incubation. In addition, variation in the growth rate and morphology of the monokaryotic mycelia of both parental strains was noticed. Out of 60 crosses made between mycelia of monokaryotic isolates of both parental strains, 20 crosses showed clamp connection, indicating that they were successful crosses. Out of 20 hybrids, two hybrid strains, viz ., W2M4 and W4M4, exhibited higher yields than their parents. They both gained the short cropping duration trait, good taste attribute with good organoleptic values and some specific volatile metabolites. This study showed that anastomosis of two strains of P. djamor having desirable agronomic traits can be bred to develop an elite hybrid strain combining desirable agronomic traits.