ISMSNEWS Culture collections matter C
ulture collections and gene banks are the very backbone of efforts to conserve biological diversity. While preserving genetic material, they serve an additional role by making
available pure cultures and genetic materials that may be required for use in biotechnology, research, education, diagnostics, breeding and other diverse applications. The current status of culture collections containing materials spe- cific to the needs of the mushroom industry and the role the ISMS could play in their future were the focus of much discussion at the General Assembly held during the recent ISMS Congress in Amster- dam. These Collections reflect issues that are universally common to many other types of microbial collections, despite their importance to mushroom science. Only a fraction of those organisms isolated over the years at different institutions, both large and small, have been preserved and made available to the public. Many collections have been lost, or are in danger of being lost, after a project has been terminated or a scientist has retired, moved on or changed interest. The loss of these resources places more emphasis on ensuring the effectiveness of remaining collections to fill this void. Examples of collections significant to the mushroom industry are the Pathogen Reference Collections located in the University of Pretoria in South Africa and duplicated at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. The purpose of these collections was to ensure that researchers could
access isolates of specific pathogens with the objective to develop effective diagnostic methods that would help combat disease in mushroom cultivation systems.
It was discussed at the Assembly that the ISMS website could act as the platform to facilitate the dissemination of information about the various isolates or germplasm contained within publicly available collections around the world. Many researchers are unaware that these isolates may be available. This would be supported, where appropriate, by providing detailed descriptions and methods to access, verify, or submit new cultures to specific active collections. It is also the intention that the ISMS website hosts culture indexes from personal research collections which may no longer be active. The purpose would be that the owners of these collections would be willing to distribute isolates to interested scientists within the mushroom community before they may be a lost resource. Strain collections are fundamental tools that are an essential com- ponent in advancing mushroom science. Making the information available so that they can be accessed and used appropriately is of equal importance. In 2017 the ISMS will initiate their commitment to this endeavor by uploading details and links to the Pathogen Refe- rence collection housed in Pretoria.
Christine Smith, Secretary ISMS
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CULTIVATION TIPS ADVISIE
Controlling the number of mushrooms with circulation
By Jos Hilkens
AdVisie ‘the mushroom growing consultants’, Herkenbosch
hilkens@mushroomconsulting.nl
Photo: AdVisie
Controlling the number of mushrooms and creating a good spread are important elements of mushroom growing. With manual picking, too many mushrooms means too many fi ne grades and high harvesting costs With mechanical harvesting this infl uences the moment of cutting, or, if there is no opportunity to alter the harvesting moment, the quality of the mushrooms. There are various ways to infl uence the number of mushrooms on the beds and a long list of measures you can take. This time we will concentrate on the fan speed. Air movement over the beds greatly infl uences the extent of evaporation. In practice the fan is often set at a too high position during pinhead out grow, so it causes more evapo- ration. That translates to more pinheads and more uniform time of development, meaning less spread. It is therefore important you are aware of how low you can set the fan speed without aff ecting the air distribution over the beds. Good results are often achieved through a combination of lowering the fan speed and the RH during pinhead out grow. This encourages the pinheads to grow at various times. As the actual full fl ush approaches the mushrooms must evaporate more so the grower can gradually start to increase the fan speed in stages. The RH may also have to be increased depending on how much it was lowered as well.
MUSHROOM BUSINESS 19
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