The effects of environmental and nutritional requirement such as temperature, pH, different media, carbon, nitrogen, and carbon-to-nitrogen ratio on the mycelial growth of Cordyceps militaris strain ‘Yedang 3’ were studied. The optimum temperature and pH for the growth of mycelium were 20-25oC and pH 6-7, respectively. Out of ten media tested, mushroom complete media (MCM) was the best medium for fast mycelial growth, and Sabouraud’s dextrose agar yeast extract (SDAY), malt extract yeast extract agar (YMA) also were favored. The color and shape of colonies varied in different media. The best carbon sources for mycelial growth were fructose, mannitol, and sucrose, whereas the best nitrogen sources were tryptone and peptone. However, mycelia grew slowly in inorganic nitrogen compounds such as NH4Cl, (NH4)2SO4, NH4NO3, and NaNO3. The optimum C:N ratio observed on the culture media was 30-40 range. These results provided basic information on cultural characteristics of vegetative growth and might be useful for spawn production in Cordyceps militaris.

The button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) is one of the most widely cultivated important edible mushroom species. In the breeding of new button mushroom, ‘Seolgang’ was developed by crossing two monokaryons ‘CM020913-27’ and ‘SSU423-31’. Because of the secondarily homothallism, only a small percentage of the basidia produce 3 or 4 spores, which are mostly haploid (n) and do not fruit. Single spore cultures derived from these types of spores produce a vegetative mycelium that also contain a variable number of genetically identical nuclei per cell called monokaryon. The lack of clamp connections between monokaryon and dikaryon required a series of mycelial culture and fruiting test. After crossing, hybrids were cultivated on a small scale and on a commercial scale at a farm. For this, the spawn was made by a commercial spawn producer and the spawned compost by a commercial compost producer. Mycelial growth of ‘Seolgang’ on CDA was better at 20℃ and 25℃ when it was compared with that of ‘505 Ho’. The mature cap shape of new strain ‘Seolgang’ is oblate spheroid and the immature cap shape is round to oblate spheroid. The cap diameter was 41.2 mm on average. In comparison with white strain ‘505 Ho’, the strain had a yield that was 9% higher. It produced fruiting bodies which had a higher weight on average per fruiting body and were 19% firmer with a good shelf life. Days of fruiting body were 3-4 days later than those of ‘505 Ho’. The physical characteristics such as elasticity, chewiness, adhesiveness were better than that of ‘505 Ho’. Genetic analysis of the new strain ‘Seolgang’ showed different profiles compared to ‘505 Ho’, CM02913-27, SSU413-31, when RAPD primers A02 and O04 were used.

Pleurotus ostreatus ‘Miso’ is a mutant strain showing white color in pileus from the known parent strain ‘Wonhyeong 1’. Shape and several other characters also vary with culture conditions. Mating experiments were performed to understand interstrain mating relationship using monokaryons of the parent and the mutant strains. All monokaryons were grown from single spores isolated from freshly collected fruit bodies. Pairings were performed in 90 mm petri dishes on PDA. They were allowed to grow at 25 until two fronts of the advancing mycelia met and developed a conspicuous contact zone. The contact zone and the outer edges of paired colonies on each plate were examined for clamp connections. The parent and the mutant resulted in tetrapolar incompatibility in intrastrain crosses. In interstrain crosses, each monokaryotic tester strain of the parent strain was out-crossed to monokaryotic tester strains of the mutant. As a result of these crosses it was found that both strains share the same A and B incompatibility factors yielding 25% compatibility.

Inonotus obliquus is a traditional medicine mushroom that was developed from traditional medicine originating in ancient. It has been applied for cancer or immunotherapy,but its effect on pulmonary tuberculosis is not reported. Therefore, we measured the pulmonary tuberculosis therapeutic effect of methyl alcohol extract from MGIT 960 system with fluorescent indicator. Inonotus obliquus extract showed 14 day more inhibitory activity than the positive control. In addition, the anti-pulmonary tuberculosis activity of Inonotus obliquus was 50㎛. These results suggest that Inonotus obliquus methyl alcohol extracts could contribute to inhibition of pulmonary tuberculosis.