Preservation of live cultures of basidiomycetes – Recent methods

• Routinely used and some newer methods for the preservation of live cultures of basidiomycetes are briefly described.
• Efficient work with basidiomycete cultures requires their safe long-term storage.
• Cryopreservation seems to surpass all other methods in the ability to preserve genomic and phenotypic features.
• It is highly desirable to develop new or improve the current preservation methods.

Basidiomycetes are used in industrial processes, in basic or applied research, teaching, systematic and biodiversity studies. Efficient work with basidiomycete cultures requires their reliable source, which is ensured by their safe long-term storage. Repeated subculturing, frequently used for the preservation, is time-consuming, prone to contamination, and does not prevent genetic and physiological changes during long-term maintenance. Various storage methods have been developed in order to eliminate these disadvantages. Besides lyophilization (unsuitable for the majority of basidiomycetes), cryopreservation at low temperatures seems to be a very efficient way to attain this goal. Besides survival, another requirement for successful maintenance of fungal strains is the ability to preserve their features unchanged. An ideal method has not been created so far. Therefore it is highly desirable to develop new or improve the current preservation methods, combining advantages and eliminate disadvantages of individual techniques. Many reviews on preservation of microorganisms including basidiomycetes have been published, but the progress in the field requires an update. Although herbaria specimens of fungi (and of basidiomycetes in particular) are very important for taxonomic and especially typological studies, this review is limited to live fungal cultures.