Inter and intraspecific genetic diversity (RAPD) among three most frequent species of macrofungi (Ganoderma lucidum, Leucoagricus sp. and Lentinus sp.) of Tropical forest of Central India

Interspecific hybridization between Ganoderma lingzhi and G. applanatum through protoplast fusion

Interspecific hybridization between Ganoderma lingzhi and G. applanatum was attempted through polyethylene glycol (PEG) induced fusion technique. The protoplast isolation procedure was simplified, and we obtained a significant number of protoplasts from both Ganoderma species. The number of protoplasts obtained was 5.27 ± 0.31 × 10⁷/mL in G. lingzhi and 5.57 ± 0.49 × 10⁶/mL in G. applanatum. Osmotic stabilizer NaCl (0.4 M) at pH 5.8 and enzymolysis time 3.5 h have supported high frequency of protoplast regeneration. G. lingzhi and G. applanatum regeneration frequency was 1.73 ± 0.04% and 0.23 ± 0.02%, respectively. 40% of PEG induced high number of protoplast fusion the regeneration frequency was 0.09% on a minimal medium. Two hundred fifty-two fusant colonies were isolated from the following four individual experiments. Among them, ten fusants showed the mycelial morphological difference compared to their parents and other fusant isolates. The fruiting body could be generated on oak sawdust and wheat bran substrate, and a few of them showed recombined morphology of the parental strains. The highest yield and biological efficacy (BE) were recorded in GF248, while least in GF244. The hybridity of the fusant was established based on mycelia, fruiting morphology, and PCR fingerprinting. ISSR and RAPD profile analysis of ten fusants and parents depicted that fusants contained polymorphic bands, which specified the rearrangement and deletion of DNA in the fusants. A Dendrogram was constructed based on the RAPD profile, and the clustering data exhibited two major clusters: cluster I included the G. lingzhi and Cluster II, including the G. applanatum and fusant lines. Total polysaccharide (α, β and total glucan) content was compared with fusants and parental strains. The present study highlighted the efficient methods for protoplast isolation from Ganoderma species. PEG-induced fusants showed high polymorphic frequency index, while the phenotypic characters showed high similarity to G. applanatum. A significant difference was observed in the mushroom yield and its total polysaccharide between the fusants and parental strains.

Development of improved strain in species of Pleurotus by gamma irradiation

The oyster mushroom (Pleurotus spp.) is the second important edible mushroom in the world, with 19 per cent contribution to total mushroom production (Sharma et al., Mushroom Res 26(2):111-120, 2017). The cultivated mushrooms face the problems like loss of genetic diversity and strain degeneration (Wang et al., Curr Microbiol 65(4):424-431, 2012). Thus to enhance the productivity within short duration, three species of Pleurotus namely Pleurotus djamor, Pleurotus florida and Pleurotus ostreatus were gamma irradiated at 20 and 25 Gy at 9.779 kGy/h and performance of mutants followed by three generation of selection in paddy straw substrate were observed. Biological efficiency (BE) of P. djamor mutants irradiated at 20 Gy was increased by 9.25 per cent. The number of days taken for primordial initiation was also reduced by 1 day compared to P. djamor. P. florida irradiated at 25 Gy recorded increase in sporocarp size over P. florida. The biological efficiency of P. ostreatus irradiated at 25 Gy was improved by 12.89 per cent and there was earliness in primordial initiation by 3 days compared to P. ostreatus. The polymorphism per cent was analysed by Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and revealed that P. djamor, P. florida and P. ostreatus had 16.70%, 25% and 22% polymorphism with their respective improved strains.

RAPD-based evaluation of genetic diversity among populations of the Iranian endemic species Rhabdosciadium aucheri Boiss. (Apiaceae)

Rhabosciadium aucheri is an Iranian endemic herbaceous species that grows in the west, center, and south regions of Iran. In the present study, genetic variation of 70 individuals belonging to seven natural populations of four provinces was investigated using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. Ten out of twenty-two RAPD primers employed in this study, generated 110 highly amplified and reproducible loci and a mean of 11.1 bands per primer and 48.13% of polymorphism was obtained. According to our results, the primer OPA10 presented the highest effective number of alleles, Shannon's index, and genetic diversity. The highest value of genetic identity (0.916) was determined between Hamadan, Nahavand and Hamadan, Alvand Mts. populations and the highest genetic distance (0.277) was observed between Hamadan, Asadabad and Kurdistan, Qorveh populations. Therefore, there is an obvious correlation between genetic diversity and geographical distribution. PCA was obtained based on RAPD molecular data and Neighbor Joining (NJ) dendrogram was provided successively. Similar results were attained employing UPGMA and Neighbor Joining dendrograms, supported by PCA ordination plot. Overall, almost moderate level of polymorphism was obtained by RAPD molecular markers at the population level that shows a reasonable amount of intraspecific variability. The reason might be due to the low level of gene flow between populations that could give rise to high genetic differentiation.

Ganoderma lucidum Rhodiola compound preparation prevent D-galactose-induced immune impairment and oxidative stress in aging rat model

Aging is an irreversible process. This research aims to study the anti-aging effects of GRCP, a compound preparation made by Ganoderma lucidum and Rhodiola rosen, in aging rats. Rats were subcutaneously injected with 400 mg/kg of D-galactose daily, and aging could be induced after 8 weeks. The aging rats were treated with GRCP. This experiment was divided into 6 groups. Rats were randomly divided into the model group, positive control group, low-dose GRCP group (25 mg/kg body weight), medium-dose GRCP group (50 mg/kg body weight), and high-dose GRCP group (100 mg/kg body weight), healthy and normal rats were used as blank controls. After the end, the results show that the use of GRCP at a dose of 100 mg/kg is the best treatment for improving aging rats. Rats gained weight, spleen and thymus indexes, and splenocyte proliferation improved, and inflammatory cytokine levels decreased. Besides, biochemical indicators show that GRCP can improve the antioxidant enzyme activity and reduce the content of lipofuscin and TGF-β in aging rats (P < 0.05). GRCP can also inhibit the activation of the MyD88/NF-κB pathway in rat hippocampus. These results seem to suggest that GRCP can be used as a potential natural supplement or functional food to prevent aging.