Abstract
The effect of trehalose on the preservation of spawns of mushroom fungi was examined. The vegetative mycelia of Lentinula edodes, Flammulina velutipes and Pleurotus ostreatus were grown on several potato trehalose agar media. Then, the mycelial disks were prepared by using a cork-borer, and they were stored in a petri dish for 1〜10 days in a refrigerator at 4℃ at less than 20% relative humidity (RH). After storage, the mycelial disks were incubated again in a glucose peptone yeast extract (GPY) liquid medium. As a result, the yield of L. edodes mycelia grown in a potato dextrose (2 %) agar medium markedly decreased upon the storing of the spawns. In contrast, the yield of mycelia which had been grown in the potato trehalose (1〜5 %) agar media slightly decreased. This trehalose effect on storage was observed markedly in the case of P. ostreatus, but not in the case ofF. velutipes. Furthermore, when the vegetative mycelia of L. edodes stored as the spawn was cultured in the trehalose (2%) liguid medium, the fruit-body yield increased about 1.5 times as compared with that of the glucose (2%) liguid medium.
