We investigated the factors of the changes in mushroom consumption behavior based on household budgets. Since 1999, the mushroom consumption behavior of households has shown a consumption trend towards a more various range of mushrooms, although keeping the constant consumption quantity of mushrooms every year. Among the items of mushrooms, the consumption of existing items including fresh shiitake and enokitake has decreased, and conversely, the frequency of purchase of new items including bunashimeji and maitake has increased. However, the factors of these changes are different for age groups like young people from the 20s to the 30s, and elderly people in their 50s to over the 60 years of age. The diversification of the consumption behavior of the young generation has spread mainly caused by the price decline and the prevalence of cooking methods. Conversely, the diversification of the consumption behavior of elderly people is considered to be mainly caused by the factors of health consideration and the novelty of tastes and shapes instead of the price decline and the prevalence of cooking methods.

View full abstract

It was found that white and brown colors of Agaricus blazei Murrill simultaneously appeared in the same compost. In this paper, several factors such as light, pH and moisture content of the casing soil on the development of the white colored A. blazei. were examined. Furthermore, differences in the components of the fruitbodies and the pharmacological effects of brown and white fruit-body extracts from A. blazei. were compared. It was estimated the light and moisture content of the cultivation environment bore no significant effect on white fruit-body formation. However, the pH of the casing soil was found to be different between the sites of brown and white fruit-bodies. The different pH of the casing soil was assumed to be caused by a heterogeneous mixture of soil and calcium hydroxide for the sake of the pH adjuster, and the high pH of the casing soil might have been a factor in the white coloring of pileus. The comparisons of the chemical components of brown and white fruiting bodies showed differences in certain components. However, pharmacological tests such as the anti-platelet aggregation test stimulated by the platelet activating factor PAF or arachidonic acid, the inhibition test of the IL-8 gene expression stimulated by TNF-α, the anti-mutagen test of 2-amino-3-methylimidazo [4,5-f] quinolin, IQ, and the improvement test of human rough surfaces using the replica method did not show any significant differences.

View full abstract

In order to elucidate the physiological characteristics of ammonia fungi, we cultured 18 isolates of ammonia fungi in synthetic liquid media with varied NH_4Cl concentrations as nitrogen source. Early phase ammonia fungi (EP fungi; saprotrophic ammonia fungi) Ascobolus denudatus, Pseudombrophila petrakii, Coprinopsis phlyctidospora, Coprinopsis sp. (allied species of C. phlyctidospora in Oceana), and late phase ammonia fungi (LP fungi; ectomycorrhizal ammonia fungi) Hebeloma vinosophyllum and He. aminophilum had optimum vegetative growth at 0.003-0.1 M NH_4Cl. The upper limit for their vegetative growth was 0.6 M NH_4Cl. EP fungus Humaria velenovskyi had optimum growth in a wider range of ammonium chloride concentrations whereas EP fungi Amblyosporium botrytis, Peziza moravecii, and Tephrocybe tesguorum had optimum growth at 0.03-0.3 M NH_4Cl. The upper limits for the vegetative growth of these four ammonia fungi were between 1.1-1.6M NH_4Cl. Results indicate that ammonia fungi can be divided into three groups in terms of tolerance to ammonium ion, namely high ammonium ion adapted species, composed of saprotrophic ammonia fungi, wide range concentrations of ammonium ion adapted species, composed of saprotrophic ammonia fungi, and high ammonium ion non-tolerant species composed of saprotrophic and ectomycorrhizal fungi.

View full abstract

Strain discrimination technology for commercial strains by DNA technologies was surveyed using Pleurotus ostreatus as the model mushroom. The analysis of the V4 region of the small mitochondrial subunit rDNA (mt SSU rDNA) for seven strains showed 99% similarity among their sequence data, and could not actually be distinguished from each other. The analysis of sequence data for the ITS region of nuclear rDNA resolved the seven test strains into three clusters. Conversely, the DNA fingerprinting by RAPD analysis distinguished all of the test strains into individual clusters in the phylogenetic trees using the UPGMA method, suggesting that this method is most appropriate for the strain discrimination of test mushrooms.

View full abstract