Breeding of a high-yield strain for commercial cultivation by crossing Pholiota adiposa and P. limonella

Pholiota adiposa is an edible mushroom with excellent nutritional and medicinal properties. However, fruiting body yields are low, and the commercial cultivation potential of this fungus is limited. In the present study, 279 crossbred strains were obtained by mono-mono crossing of monokaryotic strains derived from P. adiposa HS5 and P. limonella HS4. Ligninolytic enzymes and mycelial growth rate were used as markers to screen the crossbred strains, and 18 were selected for further analysis. Crossbred strain A10B4 displayed the highest yield, i.e., 165.91 {+/-} 12.56 g per bag, which was 31.34 g and 74.48 g more than that of strains HS5 and HS4, respectively. The mycelial colonization time of A10B4 was 25.18 {+/-} 1.33 days, which was 5.64 days shorter than that of HS5. A10B4 was characterized by inter-simple sequence repeat molecular markers and antagonism tests. Differences in PCR products from parental and crossbred strains were observed. Therefore, the newly developed hybrid strain A10B4, named P. adiposa-limonella HS54 and having a high yield and desirable traits, might be suitable for commercial cultivation.