Multicellular living organisms and unmodified parts thereof and – Method of introducing a polynucleotide molecule into or... – The polynucleotide alters fat – fatty oil – ester-type wax – or...
Patent
1994-02-16
1996-10-08
Robinson, Douglas W.
Multicellular living organisms and unmodified parts thereof and
Method of introducing a polynucleotide molecule into or...
The polynucleotide alters fat, fatty oil, ester-type wax, or...
800DIG8, 47 11, 47 58, 47DIG1, A01H 1500, A01H 100
Patent
active
055633170
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to the production and improvement of mushrooms, the sporocarps of edible agaric fungi. More particularly, this invention relates to the method of production of, and the utilization of, high proportions of homokaryons in hybrid breeding stock of the mushroom species Agaricus bisporus (Lange) Imbach, strains of which are commercially cultivated. Specifically, this invention relates to the introduction of a heritable elevated basidial spore number trait into stocks of Agaricus bisporus mushrooms, by producing hybrid Agaricus bisporus mushrooms which carry and express the trait and which produce relatively large percentages or fractions of homokaryons that may be easily recovered from among the offspring of the hybrid strains. These homokaryons can be used in crosses to produce new hybrid strains of Agaricus bisporus mushrooms which may exhibit improvements with respect to various traits including productivity, rate of development, disease resistance, aesthetic qualities and the like. Also, these homokaryons can be used to map genes that control phenotypic traits of economic importance.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The mushroom species Agaricus bisporus (Lange) Imbach, also known as Agaricus brunnescens Peck, is a well known and widely cultivated commercial mushroom. At least one distinct horticultural variety, i.e., cultivated strain, of this species of mushroom has been the subject of a U.S. Plant Patent, No. Plant 7,636, incorporated herein by reference.
Notably, a distinctive characteristic of Agaricus bisporus, that historically has defined the species, is that virtually all previously known strains have predominantly produced only two spores on each basidium. Generally, only small percentages (less than 10 percent) of basidia having more than two spores have been shown to occur in various Agaricus bisporus strains. In very rare instances, laboratory strains derived from predominantly bisporic strains have been reported to exhibit basidia in which basidia bearing more than two spores may predominate. These reports appear to involve traits which are either (1) unstable or inconsistently expressed, (2) possible artifacts of the sampling method (mushrooms too immature to provide representative data), or (3) associated with aberrant gross sporocarp morphologies which are unsuitable for the commercial market. In any event, although a long-felt need exists for increasing the production of homokaryons in breeding stock of Agaricus bisporus, none of the foregoing reports have led to a useful method for addressing this need.
The characteristic of producing only two spores on each basidium is disadvantageous to the mushroom breeder. Following meiosis in a typical two-spored basidium of Agaricus bisporus, each spore receives two nuclei which are jointly necessary for fertility. As a result, most spores of this species of mushroom, as historically known, produce fertile, heterokaryotic progeny. Such a trait of self-fertility poses a problem for the mushroom breeder because heterokaryons apparently undergo little, if any, hybridization. The bisporic trait characterizes all commercially cultivated strains as well as the great majority of naturally occurring or "wild" strains of Agaricus bisporus thus far discovered.
In contrast, all other known species of Agaricus produce predominantly fourspored basidia. In most agaric fungi, tetrasporic basidia are usually associated with the production of mononucleate homokaryotic spores which germinate to produce infertile homokaryons. In mushroom breeding, homokaryons, haploid strains which function in a manner similar to the gameres of plants and animals, are generally required for the practical crossbreeding of stocks to produce new hybrid strains. Homokaryons mate easily with other compatible homokaryons. However, less conventionally, it is sometimes possible to cross a homokaryon and a heterokaryon or, in some instances, to cross two heterokaryons.
To produce hybrids in the conventional manner, homokaryons such as those obtained from t
REFERENCES:
Raper et al (1972) Mycologia 64: 1088-1117.
Kerrigan Richard W.
Spear Mark C.
McElwain Elizabeth F.
Robinson Douglas W.
Sylvan Spawn Laboratory Incorporated
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