Optimization and enriched cultivation of Philippine (CLSU) strain of Lentinus strigosus (BIL1324)

We reported in the past the successful rescue and domestication of Lentinus strigosus, a naturally occurring, wood-rotting edible mushroom from the Philippines. The present work highlighted the optimum culture conditions for efficient mycelial growth and evaluated the fruiting body performance in enriched rice straw based substrates in order to improve the biological efficiency of this mushroom. L. strigosus mycelia grew best on solid medium with potato broth sucrose agar with pH 6.0, incubated in sealed, under dark at room temperature (32 °C) condition. Rice straw with 20% rice bran and 20% corn grit stimulated the formation of primordia, produced the highest mean yields of 163.95 g and 160.90 g and recorded the highest biological efficiencies of 32.79% and 32.18%, respectively. Thus, addition of enrichment materials such as rice bran and corn grit to the rice straw based substrate improves the yield and biological efficiency of L. strigosus.