Subject: Genetics (Take ][)

From: [email-masked](Thailine Matar)
Date: 24 Sep 1996 17:18:09 GMT

I posed this question regarding mycological genetics once before
and I wasn't very clear.  Mushrooms grown *in a closed environment*
using spore prints from one generation to create the mycelium of the
next sounds, to me, like inbreeding.  Genetic diversity doesn't seem to
be met and, over several generations, it seems the fungi should develop
problems (failure to germinate comes most readily to mind).  In nature,
this problem doesn't exist since spores germinate with spores from "far
away" colonies (yes, I realize it probably isn't all that far away). 
This question involves the closed environment condition *not* the
natural/open condition.
	Am I mistaken because fungi are "simple enough" organism not to
run into this problem.  If I am not mistaken, is there a method, other
than spores from an outside source, that alleviates the problem?
	One solution I've considered involves cloning.  I have no idea if
this solution is applicable to fungi but it works well with plants
(pulling from my botanical knowledge).  From my understanding,
mushrooms start as spores, germinate into hyphae/mycelium, enter into
their fruiting stage which ends with spore creation.  Could a section
of the mycelium be transferred from a fruiting colony into a
nutrient-rich environment and begin to generate new mycelium which
would later enter into another fruiting cycle.  Genetic diversity
doesn't exist since these new colonies are nothing more than duplicates
of the older colony but at least you don't get any problems 
with nasty recessives rearing their ugly heads.
	There.  I think that's clearer.

---

From: Richard W. Kerrigan <[email-masked]>
Date: 10 Oct 1996 08:34:22 -0400

(Briefly:)  Empirically, some higher fungi exhibit inbreeding problems 
following one or more generations of sib-spore matings, while other tend 
not to.  Remember, there are successful haploid and/or homothallic fungi 
that are analagous to highly inbred strains.  Finally, yes, cloning works; 
it is the actual method used most often in mushroom culture. -- Rick

Thailine Matar ([email-masked]) wrote:

: 	I posed this question regarding mycological genetics once before
: and I wasn't very clear.  Mushrooms grown *in a closed environment*
: using spore prints from one generation to create the mycelium of the
: next sounds, to me, like inbreeding.  Genetic diversity doesn't seem to
: be met and, over several generations, it seems the fungi should develop
: problems (failure to germinate comes most readily to mind).  In nature,
: this problem doesn't exist since spores germinate with spores from "far
: away" colonies (yes, I realize it probably isn't all that far away). 
: This question involves the closed environment condition *not* the
: natural/open condition.
: 	Am I mistaken because fungi are "simple enough" organism not to
: run into this problem.  If I am not mistaken, is there a method, other
: than spores from an outside source, that alleviates the problem?
: 	One solution I've considered involves cloning.  I have no idea if
: this solution is applicable to fungi but it works well with plants
: (pulling from my botanical knowledge).  From my understanding,
: mushrooms start as spores, germinate into hyphae/mycelium, enter into
: their fruiting stage which ends with spore creation.  Could a section
: of the mycelium be transferred from a fruiting colony into a
: nutrient-rich environment and begin to generate new mycelium which
: would later enter into another fruiting cycle.  Genetic diversity
: doesn't exist since these new colonies are nothing more than duplicates
: of the older colony but at least you don't get any problems 
: with nasty recessives rearing their ugly heads.
: 	There.  I think that's clearer.
-- 
Richard W. Kerrigan, Research Department, Sylvan Spawn Laboratory, Inc.		
               1163 Winfield Rd., Cabot, PA  16032  USA
e-mail:	[email-masked]      phone: 412-352-1521      fax: 412-352-4062
	"Success has a thousand parents; failure is an orphan"

---

From: [email-masked] (David N. Gaines)
Date: 10 Oct 1996 23:38:25 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] 
says...
>next sounds, to me, like inbreeding.  One solution I've considered 
involves cloning.  I have no idea if
>(pulling from my botanical knowledge).  Could a section
>would later enter into another fruiting cycle.

Yes, perpetuating a colony through mycelial innoculations is a commonly 
used practice in mushroom cultivation.

David