Abstract
In recent years, mushrooms have been attracted much attention as a healthy food, since they are rich in dietary fiber, low in calories, and contain functional constituents, such as lignin and β-glucan. Thus with increasing demand, the cultivation of mushrooms has become popular. However, conditions for the cultivation environment are largely dependent upon the experience of the farming site and have little scientific basis. We have been working on the development of a technique for diagnosis of ripeness at an early stage of cultivation, using an MRI device obtaining non-invasive tomographic imaging (2-D imaging) of mycelium within the cultivation medium that provides nourishment for the fruit body formation. In this study we have investigated the reconfiguration of 3D images, based on the 2D data previously obtained, in order to further observe the growth of mycelium within the medium. Thus three-dimensional observation of growing mycelium, such as the cracks formed at inoculation and the mycelial strands that grow in the surrounding area of the inoculation trace, are possible. Additional basic data, useful for development of the ripeness diagnostic technique for culture medium, have been obtained.
