Towards Conventional and Mutational Breeding in Pleurotus Sajorcaju

• Main Author: Fung, Jessica Lee Ying
• Format: Final Year Project Report
• Language: English; English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) 2015
• Subjects: S Agriculture (General)
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/27820/1/Jessica.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/27820/4/Jessica%20Fung%20Lee%20Ying%20ft.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/27820/
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Currently, Pleurotus sajor-caju is gaining popularity due to its massive nutrient content and capability of growing on various agricultural wastes. These advantages may help in raising the economic dynamics of certain countries. P. sajor-caju has short shelf life. The appearance, texture, colour and taste is not consistent. There is a need to breed new strain of P. sajor-caju to meet the rising demands of the increasing population. Strain improvement is achievable through selection, hybridisation and mutagenesis. Unfortunately, there is limited information regarding the genetic variations of P. sajor caju. Therefore this study is of interest to document as much as possible the morphological variations of monokaryon cultures, to generate hybrids and generate new variations from the monokaryon culture through mutagenesis. A total of 200 monokaryotic mycelium (MM) were cultured individually on potato dextrose agar. The 200 MMs were characterized morphologically and were divided into three main groups based on macroscopic morphology which are scattered, rough and smooth. Aside from that, all the MM observed were also categorized based on their colony diameter after 7 days of post inoculation (CD-7dpi) which are slow growing colony diameter (SGCD-7), medium growing colony diameter (MGCD-7) and fast growing colony diameter (FGCD-7). In this study, 10 FGCD-7 and 10 SGCD-7 were selected for hybridization. The selected MM were hybridized within and between each other in all possible combinations without repetition. A total of 16 dikaryons were recognized. For all FGCD-7 pairings, SGCD-7 pairings, and between FGCD-7 and SGCD-7 pairings, dikaryons that is at least significantly different from one of its parents has higher CD-7dpi than the parental strains. For mutagenesis of monokaryon culture, the best concentration of Ethyl Methane Sulfonate (EMS) to mutate MM would be 1% to 2% (v/v). In this study, two candidate mutants with slower colony growth compared to control (EMS017 and EMS032) were obtained.