In order to explore the species diversity of macrofungi in Shenzhen area, field collection and investigation of fungal samples were conducted for three years from 2019 to 2021. A total number of 248 fungal species were found and finally identified with the morphological and molecular methods to belong to two phyla, six classes, 14 orders, 54 families and 117 genera. The dominant families were Polyporaceae, Agaricaceae, Boletaceae, etc, while the dominant genera were Amanita,Marasmius, Russula, etc. The analysis of floristic geographical elements of Shenzhen's macrofungal genera showed that the cosmopolitan element was the majority one(54.7%), followed by the pantropical element(27.35%) and then the northern temperate element(11.11%). Furthermore, a number of 32 edible species, 48 medicinal species, 24 poisonous species, and one vulnerable species, Aureoboletus miniatoaurantiacus, were detected from the above macrofungal resources, some of which may have great potentials for future development and commercial utilization.
Scorias spongiosa, often known as Bamboo Swallow's Nest, is the only representative of the Sooty Fungus family that has the ability to create a fruiting body. This species is used not only as an edible food but also as a Chinese medicine to have a significant economic value. It is particularly renowned for its distinctive effectiveness in combating inflammation, germs and cancer. S. spongiosa serves as an uncommon case study for investigating co-evolutionary dynamics of multiple interacting species because of the existence of unique symbiotic relationships between plants, insects and fungi.This organism largely sustains itself by consuming honeydew, which is secreted by aphids on bamboo, beech, and citrus trees. This article presents a comprehensive overview of the research achievements on its life cycle, growth environments and artificial cultivation as well as nutritional and medicinal applications of S. spongiosa from existing literatures. Merits to learn from the multi-species interaction occurring under natural environments for further artificial cultivation of Scorias spongiosa are discussed. Possible benefits of S. spongiosa are also described on the basis of previous studies to provide valuable references for the future development of this fungus.
Wood-inhabiting fungi play a fundamental role in ecosystem processes, particularly in the wood degradation and recycling of organic matter. Recognized as pivotal contributors to the intricate balance of forest ecosystems, these fungi are renowned as “key players” due to their enzymatic prowess, abling to effectively break down woody components like lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose. In this study, a newly proposed wood-inhabiting genus, Nigrochaete gen. nov. and one species, Nigrochaete bambusicola sp. nov. discovered from Southwest China are described on the basis of their morphological and molecular characteristics. The new genus Nigrochaete is an annual basidiocarp fungus: adnate, resupinate, smoke grey to grey color after drying, small and short grandinoid hymenial surface, a monomitic hyphal system, clamped generative hyphae, longitudinally septate basidia with a subellipsoid to ovoid shape, and allantoid basidiospores. Nucleotide sequences of the internal transcribed spacers(ITS) and the large subunit(nrLSU) of nuclear ribosomal DNA(rDNA) gene were obtained from the fungal samples for phylogenetic analyses performed with the maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference methods, which indicated that the Nigrochaete genus formed a monophyletic lineage within the order Auriculariales, mostly close to the genus of Proterochaete. The present study enriches the species diversity of Auriculariales in China that should benefit to protect and sustainably use the natural resources of fungi.
Forty-five fungal strains were screened to show the activity of laccase, cellulase,hemicellulose or peroxidase by a plate rapid screening method combined with fermentation culture at low temperatures. Within these strains, the high enzyme activity reached up to 7.47 U/mL(L2431) and 7.2 U/mL(X1957) for laccase, 239 U/mL(L743) and 167 U/mL(L1675) for cellulase, 179.3 U/mL(YF410), 120.0 U/mL(H382) and 113.3 U/mL(L2431-3) for hemicellulose, and 25.1 U/mL(L2431),24.9 U/mL(2423) and 15.9 U/mL(L2419) for peroxidase respectively under the liquid fermentation cultured at 20 ℃ in 10 days. After that, six strains were selected furthermore for the decomposition test of corn straws at low temperatures. Enzyme activities and degradation rates of corn straw components were measured in 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 days, respectively, indicating that the time needed by the enzymes to reveal their maximum activities at the low temperature varied among strains. Although there existed significant differences in the degradation rates for each component of corn straws among the above strains, the total degradation rates of corn straws increased as time proceeded for all the strains. The degradation rates of lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose in corn straws were 18.2%-25.1%, 24.1%-44.6% and 19.3%-26.3%, respectively while the total degradation rates of corn straws were 61.8%-87.0% in 50 days. The above results demonstrated clearly that the fungal strains screened at the present study were able to adapt to the low-temperature environments without the loss of their high enzymatic activity and high efficiency in decomposition of corn straws, providing strong and positive evidence for future promotion and application of straw returning measures in the cold areas of northeast China.
Cultivation substrate of Agaricus Morchella was used to investigate the sterilization effect of bacteria through the low-temperature plasma technology carried out at atmospheric pressure.High-throughput sequencing technology was performed to analyze the changes of bacterial community, such as composition and diversity in the substrate, before and after treatments of low-temperature and room-temperature as well as low-temperature plasma. Our results showed that the diversity, richness and evenness of bacterial community were significantly reduced after treatment by low-temperature plasma, with the largest decrement rate up to 32%, 34% and 9%,respectively. Among different families detected from the bacterial community, however, relative richness of Burkholderiaceae increased continuously after treatment while among the genera, the dominant bacterium was Aquabacterium after treatment. The bactericidal rate of low-temperature plasma treatment against a variety of pathogenic bacteria such as Streptomyces, Xanthomonas,Ochrobactrum, and Paraburkholderia was above 99%. This study, as the first time, applied the new technology by using the atmospheric low temperature plasma for substrate sterilization of Morchella,which could effectively kill a variety of pathogenic bacteria, thereafter, demonstrating a good example and prospects for the future applications of above technology to the effective sterilization and preservation of Morchella cultivation substrates.
In order to explore the regulatory effect of culture substrates on amino acid synthesis in the fruiting body of Tremella fuciformis, metabolomics and proteomics were applied in this study. Two kinds of substrates(a mixed substrate made of wheat bran and cottonseed hull and a Cyclobalanopsis substrate) were used to for the investigation, which revealed a result that the total contents of proteins and amino acids of T. fuciformis grown on the mixed substrate were significantly higher than those grown on the Cyclobalanopsis substrate. A total of 488 metabolites with significant differences in quantity between the two substrates were identified by LC-MS/MS, in which amino acids and peptides including their similar substances accounted for the highest proportion. Moreover, a total of 1 685 proteins were identified by using proteomics and 668 differentially expressed proteins were screened out. Correlation analysis of metabolomic and proteomic data revealed a presence of the regulatory network on the amino acid synthesis pathway, such as tryptophan, tyrosine and lysine and pentose phosphate pathways. Our study demonstrated, furthermore, an increment of NADPH content in the T. fuciformis grown on the mixed substrate, which led to the higher amino acid content of T. fuciformis than that of Cyclobalanopsis substrate. The above results obtained at the present study should help to understand the regulatory mechanism of amino acid synthesis under the different cultivation substrates in T. fuciformis and provide a theoretical basis for developing a high-quality and efficient cultivation model as well.
Domestication and cultivation of ectomycorrhizal edible fungi has been one of the hot topics that draws significant attentions. Over the past century, various progresses have been achieved on the artificial cultivation of truffle, matsutake, saffron milk caps, bolete and chanterelles. However,the unique genetic and physiological characteristics of ectomycorrhizal edible fungi have limited the success of its commercial cultivation to only a few species. This paper takes a look at the recent research development on characteristics, enzymatic activity, mycelial culture, mycorrhizal synthesis and post-transplant management of mycorrhizal fungi, with purposes to provide some valuable insights for future studies in this field.
Precise identification of edible mushroom strains plays a crucial role in its production and germplasm innovation. In China, the general existence of close genetic relationships and severe homogeneity among different cultivars of commercial mushrooms is considered a serious problem.Current methods used for identifying edible mushroom strains are almost labor-intensive and lack accuracy and reproducibility as well. Therefore, development and application of advanced technology for the precise identification of edible mushrooms still remains as a challenging issue in their relevant industry. Multiple nucleotide polymorphism(MNP) molecular markers can be used for simultaneous detection of multiple sequence variations to provide high-resolution genetic information, which enables to distinguish the differences between edible mushrooms more precisely with high repeatability and accuracy. This article aims to investigate the advantages of use of MNP molecular markers for strain identification of edible mushrooms together with the review of their first application to the precise identification of Lentinula edodes and Flammulina filiformis carried out from the year 2022 to 2023. Our analysis of variation patterns of MNP markers demonstrated that not only precise identification but also traceability of mushroom strains could be gained, indicating the presence of a huge potential for their application. It is believed that through further research development, especially in combination with the phenotypic data, use of MNP molecular markers will continuously provide us with much more supports and solutions for the essential protection of edible mushroom germplasm resources, the breeding improvement as well as the quality control of industrial products.