Haodong Liu

Morchella spp. are rare and highly valued edible fungi that often exhibit unstable yield and quality under protected cultivation due to inadequate regulation of the light and temperature microenvironment. Colored films can effectively optimize these conditions. In this study, the effects of six colored film treatments—white film (WM), red film (RM), green film (GM), blue film (BM), black film (BKM), and silver-black film (SBM)—on the microenvironment and development of Morchella septimelata and M. sextelata were investigated. The results showed that the BM treatment improved the microenvironment and promoted Morchella development. BM exhibited high transmittance, enhancing light intensity and increasing accumulated air and soil temperatures. It also led to the production of the greatest number of mature fruiting bodies, with 46 per square meter for M. septimelata and 54 per square meter for M. sextelata. Agronomic traits were also superior under the BM treatment, with pileus lengths of 82.97 mm for M. septimelata and 70.76 mm for M. sextelata. Compared with WM, BM significantly increased the weight of a single fruiting body and yield by 12.23% and 20.86% for M. septimelata and by 18.14% and 25.34% for M. sextelata, respectively. BM also significantly increased crude fiber content by 16.92% in M. septimelata and 2.63% in M. sextelata. RM significantly increased crude polysaccharide content by 47.42% in M. septimelata and by 44.12% in M. sextelata. This study indicated that BM was the preferred choice for Morchella protected cultivation.

Stropharia rugosoannulata is a widely cultivated edible fungus with high economic and nutritional value. It is a tetrapolar heterothallic basidiomycete. The development of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for mating-type identification holds considerable promise for enhancing breeding efficiency. In our study, one group of test crosses and three-round mating experiments from one parental strain were conducted in order to ascertain the mating type in this species. Segregation distortion in mating types was observed after single-spore isolation, which was deviated from Mendelian inheritance. The monokaryotic strain Q25 was derived from the dikaryotic mycelium S1 of S. rugosoannulata. The genome map of strain Q25 with 48.27 Mb and 14 chromosomes was constructed using genomic, transcriptomic, and high-throughput chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C) sequencing technologies. The locations of mating-type loci were identified using genomic annotation. The mating-type A locus is located in chromosome 1, with the gene sequence of β-fg, HD2, HD1, and MIP. The mating-type B locus is located in chromosome 12. It contains five pheromone receptors and five pheromone precursor genes. Two pairs of highly specific and stable primers were designed based on SNP loci in A and B mating types. A1, A2, B1, and B2 alleles were precisely distinguished with these primers, which were subsequently applied in cultivation experiments. This study lays a foundation for the precise breeding of S. rugosoannulata.