Abstract
The effects of pH, ammonium-nitrogen concentration and temperature on the basidiospore germination in Coprinopsis spp. having warty spores collected from urea-treated forest floor in different biogeographical regions were investigated. The isolates were identified based on ITS rDNA sequences and their morphological features. The tested isolates were Coprinopsis phlyctidospora from Japan and Canada, Coprinopsis sp. from New Zealand (Suzuki et al., 2002) and Coprinopsis echinospora from Canada. The effective range of ammonium-nitrogen concentration for the germination was from 0.0001 M to 1 M with the optimum at 0.1 M for C. phlyctidospora from Japan and Canada and 0.01 M for Coprinopsis sp. from New Zealand. The pH range for the germination was from 6.0 to 9.5 with pH optimum for C. phlyctidospora from Japan and Canada was 8.0, whereas for Coprinopsis sp. from .New Zealand and C. echinospora from Canada was 8.5. Furthermore, the basidiospores of the C. phlyctidospora from Japan and Coprinopsis sp. from New Zealand germinated at the temperature range from 5 C to 40 C with optimum temperature at 30 C whereas, C. phlyctidospora and C. echinospora from Canada germinated from 5 C to 30 C with optimum temperature at 15 C.These suggest that the Coprinopsis spp. have similar physiological characteristics of the spore germination for responses to pH and ammonium-nitrogen concentration, irrespective of their different inhabiting regions. It is also suggested that the Coprinopsis spp. were well adapted to the temperature of each inhabiting area.
