Viable Spores Can be Obtained and Germinated from Commercially Obtained Dried Morel (Morchella) Mushrooms

Morel mushrooms (Morchella sp.) are highly prized edible mushrooms that are still difficult to cultivate despite great interest and advancements made in recent years. Obtaining genetic material of morel mushrooms is necessary to carry out research but may be challenging depending on the region, time of the season, budget, or local legislation. This study assessed whether ascospores could be recovered and germinated from retail dried morel products and whether resulting isolates could be taxonomically identified. Four packets of dried morels from different suppliers were rehydrated, homogenized, and processed to recover spore suspensions. Hemocytometer counts yielded mean spore titers of 1.50 × 10⁵ (A), 4.24 × 10⁶ (B), 5.86 × 10⁶ (C), and 3.51 × 10⁵ (D) spores mL^-1. Aliquots were plated on Sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA) with chloramphenicol and incubated at 24 °C; colony counts indicated cultivable fractions corresponding to c. 2.2% germination for sample A and ∼10-20% for samples B-D. Representative colonies were subcultured, DNA was extracted, and ITS barcodes were generated by Sanger sequencing. Isolates from samples A, B, and D matched Morchella sextelata, while isolates from sample C matched Morchella eximia. The findings demonstrate that viable Morchella ascospores can persist through commercial drying and that dried products constitute a low‑cost source of cultivable material. Discrepancies between sequencing results and product labels highlighted possible country of origin concerns but were considered outside the scope of this work and were not exhaustively investigated.