The button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus, is one of the major economical crops cultivated in Korea. This mushroom showed the 5th production to 11,493 M/T in 2014. Several fungus are known as the causal agents of diseases of the cultivated button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) and oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus). Trichoderma harzianum is the causal agent of green mould disease of commercial mushrooms. Early symptoms were noticed as round, fleshy, brown lesions on mushroom caps. Late symptoms spread on the surface of the casing, and covered entirely fruiting bodies. A Gram-positive bacterium was isolated from mushroom media that markedly showed the antagonistic activity against Trichoderma harzianum, the destructive pathogen of cultivated mushrooms. The CH518 strain was selected as antagonistic bacterium by inhibition zone method and it was identified as Bacillus methylotrophicus by the cultural, morphological and physiological characteristics, and analysis of the 16S rDNA. The isolated bacterium is saprophytic but not parasitic nor pathogenic to cultivation mushroom. The isolated bacterium for Trichoderma harzianum cell, was sufficient for inhibition in vitro. Inoculation of the isolated bacterium prevents the development of bacterial disease in Trichoderma harzianum. Control efficacy of browning disease of strain CH518 treatment was 77.7% on Agaricus bisporus. The optimal culture medium for the antagonistic bacteria growth was determined as follows: 3.0% saccharose, 1.5% Soytone, 1% NH4H2PO4, 10 mM MgSO4, and 2.0% glutamic acid at pH 6.0 at 25°C. The suppressive bacterium may be useful in future for the development of biocontrol system and the construction of genetically modified edible fungi resistant to the disease caused by Trichoderma harzianum.

Although antioxidant activities of Korean traditional fermented foods were reported by many researchers, study on antioxidant activity of microorganism originated from Korean traditional fermented foods was little. Therefore, we improved condition for antioxidant production by a bacterium isolated from home-made Chungkookjang. We selected a bacterial strain, which showed the highest antioxidative activity, from Chungkookjang and then named GJ. The selected GJ strain was identified as Bacillus methylotrophicus by alignment data of 16S rRNA gene nucleotide sequences. Improved medium compositions for DPPH radical scavenging activity were 0.25% sucrose, 1% peptone, 0.01% MgSO4·7H2O and initial pH 6.5, respectively. Optimal culture conditions were 30℃, 200 rpm and 4% inoculum volume, respectively. In improved conditions, DPPH radical scavenging activity of GJ reached to 91% in a short time. The strain GJ also possessed ACE inhibition and other antioxidative activities; ACE inhibition activity (49.4%), ABTS radical scavenging activity (99.8%), metal chelating activity (67.9%), SOD-like activity (36.5%) and reducing power (A700 = 5.982) were observed, respectively. Therefore, our results suggest that B. methylotrophicus GJ strain may be potential candidate for functional foods, cosmetic products for anti-aging and medicine for diseases caused by oxidative stress.