Breeding of a high-yield strain for commercial cultivation by crossing Pholiota adiposa

Pholiota adiposa is a mushroom with excellent nutritional and medicinal properties. However, fruiting body yields are low, and the commercial cultivation potential of this fungus is limited. Here, 279 crossbred strains were obtained by the mono-mono crossing of monokaryotic strains derived from P. adiposa HS5 and HS4. Laccase enzymes and mycelial growth rates were used as markers to screen the crossbred strains, and 18 strains 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 d, which was 5.64 d shorter than that of HS5. A10B4 was characterized by inter-simple sequence repeat molecular markers. Differences in PCR products from parental and crossbred strains were observed. Therefore, the newly developed hybrid strain A10B4, named P. adiposa HS54 exhibiting high yield, might be suitable for commercial cultivation.