Hybrid production of oyster mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus (Jacq: Fries) Kummer.

Optimization of industrial mushroom production depends on improving the culture process and breeding new strains with higher yields and productivities. So many works have been done on process improvement, Although few systematic studies of genetic breeding of Pleurotus ostreatus strains have been reported. The major aim of hybridization is to combine desirable characteristics from different strains and create variability in the existing germ plasm. In this study, we used a breeding approach to hybrid production from cultivated Oyster mushrooms Pleurotus ostreatus. Five strains of Pleurotus ostreatus (Jacq: Fries) Kummer were used in this research. Basidiospores were suspended in sterile distilled water and counted with a haemocytometer. After germination, colony of each isolate transferred into the PDA medium. Growth rate and colony type of each isolate was determined and then 17 monokaryons were selected. Consequently screening monokaryons were crossed to each other. Some characteristics such as morphological interaction in the contact zone of mycelium, increasing in growth rate of hybrid, change of colony morphology and the presence of clamp connections between dikaryotic cells used to distinction of monokaryons from dikaryons. We recognized 27 hybrids by these characteristics.