MUSHROOM WEEK
Anton Sonnenberg, Plant Breeding, WUR described recent rese- arch done by this group on the life cycle of the button mushroom.
The beautiful big hall of the Muziekgebouw.
extracts. To my knowledge, research on taste of mushrooms has not been presented at ISMS congresses before.
Updated UPOV guidelines
represent an
important step in protecting new
button mushroom varieties.
Genetics and breeding The third largest session was on Genetics & Breeding, which included 16 presentations. As researchers in mushroom breeding this topic is of course closest to our hearts. Sergio Semon of the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) gave an update on the development of the UPOV guidelines for new button mushroom varieties. These describe how technical examination on submitted new varieties should be done to see if such a variety is distinct from present varieties, and if it is uniform and stable. New varieties must meet all criteria before it will receive intellectual protection as Plant Breeders Right. The updated guidelines will probably become effective in April 2017 and represent an impor- tant step in protecting new varieties. We hope that this will encourage investment in breeding. The next lecture was given by Anton Sonnen- berg, Plant Breeding, WUR. He described recent research done by this group on the life cycle of the button mushroom. This typical life cycle allows the generation “look-a-likes” of existing varieties in a short time that perhaps may outcompete existing varieties made by large investments. He presented evidence that all present-day white varieties have been derived in such a way from the first hybrids released in 1980 and stated that this way of “breeding” should be considered as the generation of essentially derived varieties. As a consequence, a breeder of such varieties should negotiate with the first breeder for a license.
16 MUSHROOM BUSINESS
Prof Baogui Xie of the Mycological Research Centre of Fujian, described research on the genetics of the paddy rice straw mushroom (Volvariella volvacea). This research enhances our knowledge on breeding of this mushroom that forms an important crop in China and other eastern countries.
Igor Grigoriev of the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) presented the possibilities that this institute offers for genomic analyses using all the available state-of-the-art techniques. These techniques offer mushroom research and breeding companies opportunities to generate knowledge on how to breed new strains and to protect new varieties. The latter issues were covered by Mark Loftus of Sylvan Research in his lecture. The next two lectures showed examples of using genetic markers in breeding programs: Manjit Sing (ICAR-Solan) in breeding bruising resistant button mushroom varieties and Lujun Zhang (Institute of edible fungi, Shanghai) in breeding new shiitake varieties. Robin Ohm (University of Utrecht) discussed research on lignocellulose degradation by the model fungus Schizophyllum commune. Robin presented comparative genomics data on a large number of strains collected in different parts of the world. It appears that this fungus shows a large genetic variation between strains, larger that usually seen for other mushroom forming species and discussed the consequences this has for using S. commune as a model organism. Ursula Kües (Georg-August Univerity Göttingen) gave an overview of the research done on the regulation of mushroom formation in another model organism; Coprinopsis cinerea, an ink cap mushroom. It was an impressive summation of
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
