Isolation and characterization of edible mushroom-forming fungi from Swedish nature

Fungi are a highly diverse group of organisms, of which only a small subset has been taken into cultivation for application in biotechnology and food industry. Accordingly, outside of a few model species, there is a lack of knowledge about the isolation and cultivation of fungi. In this study, we isolated 17 wild strains of 14 different species of edible, mushroom-forming fungi growing in Swedish nature. We documented their growth rates under different temperatures, investigated their fruiting characteristics, and compared the results to data obtained from common laboratory strains. Our results show that the strains from commercially cultivated species have a higher mycelial growth rate and tend to grow faster at higher temperatures than strains from less frequently cultivated species. The fruiting experiments led to successful fruiting of four newly collected wild strains, belonging to the species Hericiumcoralloides, Pleurotuspulmonarius, and Schizophyllumcommune. Although some strains fruited on potato dextrose agar (PDA), more specific substrates such as straw or birch pellets indicated more potential for mushroom production. All newly isolated strains of this study have been deposited at the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute (CBS) collection and are thereby made available for further studies and/or use in application in the food industry or biotechnology. Two species isolated in this study are entirely novel to widely used culture collections, and for nine species no Swedish strain has been deposited previously. The description of the mycelial growth and fruiting of the isolated strains in this study is a first step on their way to further use.