Mushroom genome offers insight to key societal challenges

Kent, UK -- The edible Button Mushroom (Agaricus bisporus), a globally important crop valued at £4bn pa, has had its DNA mapped for the first time. This project will improve the production of this high value food from waste products and also inform strategies for future biofuel production and global carbon cycling.

The paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), was co-written in the UK by Dr Kerry Burton and Greg Deakin at East Malling Research (EMR), as part of an international collaboration funded by the US Department of Energy examining the many fungi capable of degrading lignocellulosic or ‘woody’ plant wastes.

“This study now provides scientists with the molecular mechanism for the special niche that Agaricus inhabits. Whilst most lignocellulosic fungi grow on raw wood or leaf litter, Agaricus grows on partially decomposed leaf litter,” commented Dr Kerry Burton. He continued, “Understanding the mechanisms by which it can do this, will enable scientists to increase the efficiency of converting plant waste outputs for the production of high-value mushroom crops with improved quality characteristics.”

Further energy implications of the work can now be explored as Agaricus has the ability to break-down difficult woody plant materials to release locked-up sugars which can then be used during a fermentation process to produce biofuels.

The Agaricus genome is proving to be a model-species owing to its almost unique ability to exploit partially composted plant materials, high in carbon-rich humic substances. Humic materials originate from decayed plant and bacterial material and comprise a large part of the organic material in soil. This is sequestered or locked-up carbon and therefore not in the atmosphere or contributing to climate change (globally soils and vegetation contain three times as much carbon as the atmosphere).

Future research at EMR will use this genome sequence to identify traits beneficial to crop production and related isues such as the management of global carbon sequestration and converstion of waste for useful products, such as biofuels.

About East Malling Research

East Malling Research is home to the British centre for mushroom research that takes fundamental processes at the gene level through to practical delivery to the industry. EMR currently have a range of mushroom research projects with a total value of over £600K for increasing the use of the use and efficiency of sustainable materials, understanding mushroom diseases and improving their control and improvement to mushroom quality. Many of these projects are using the genome sequence as microarray and ‘Next Generation Sequencing’ technology to improve research efficiency and understanding.

East Malling Research (EMR), established in 1913, is an independent provider of top-class research, development and consultancy, serving the food chain and other sectors of the land-based industry.

For more information about East Malling Research, please visit their website here