Edible mushrooms of the Atlantic Forest: diversity and viability of cultivation

• Grant number: 17/25754-9
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): March 01, 2018
• Effective date (End): February 28, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Botany
• Principal Investigator: Nelson Menolli Junior
• Grantee: Mariana de Paula Drewinski
• Home Institution: Instituto de Botânica. Secretaria do Meio Ambiente (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Among the 22,000 known mushroom species, about 2,000 are edible and only 100 species are cultivated. The Brazilian Indians know and consume several species of mushrooms found in the forests. These naturally occurring species may be very promising for cultivation studies and future insertion in the market of edible mushrooms. In this way, the objective of this work is to know the edible mushrooms of occurrence in the Atlantic Forest and to study its potentialities of cultivation. The native xylophilous edible mushrooms will be collected and identified through the morphological and molecular characteristics, through the amplification and sequencing of the ITS intergenic region (barcoding for fungi). The mushrooms will be isolated in PDA culture medium and submitted to tests of mycelial growth at different temperatures and in the substrates eucalyptus sawdust, wheat straw and sugar cane bagasse, supplemented with 10% of wheat bran. The isolates will be evaluated for the degradation efficiency of the substrates through enzymatic tests, spawn production in wheat grains, and yield and biological efficiency in different substrates. Finally, the mushrooms produced will be submitted to bromatological analysis to determine the nutritional composition. Research on the potential of native mushroom cultivation may lead to the discovery of isolates with higher productivity and more adapted to local conditions than the commercially available species. (AU)