Mushroom named 'Grifon 120'

Abstract

A new and distinct variety of mushroom, named ‘Grifon 120’, is described, which mushroom is characterized by its cap with thick flesh and delicious-looking whitish undersurface, good qualitative character and appearance, good keeping quality and storage life and delicious tasting. The mushroom can be cultivated by gathering and repeated breeding of fungal strains having dominant traits and is exquisite in stability, reproducibility and uniformity when being produced.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of mushroom plant, named ‘Grifon 120’, of the species Grifola frondosa.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Grifola frondosa, also known as Maitake, has been richly cultivated artificially in Japan for a long time and known familiarly as healthy ingredient. In recent years, the demand of Maitake comestible as supplement is increasing because the hot water extract from Maitake is considered as effective against cancer. So, growth in demand of Maitake in the form of fresh food are expected. Ease of cultivation and improvement in productivity of the mushroom are required for expedite sales.

It is critical element that is the appearance, taste, preservative quality and tempting color of Grifola frondosa broth in to be accepted in a market. About the broth, it is pointed out that Grifola frondosa broth is deep in color with variety.

On the other hand, Grifola frondosa had been cultivated based on wild mushroom tissue disaggregation. However, it has been so far difficult to control the postplanting environment for Grifola frondosa artificially, and mass-produce the mushroom. Thus, a new mushroom species was bred by a cross-breeding techniques. For example, there has been a new variety of Grifola frondosa named ‘Hokuto NT-100’ as disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 17,984, which is featured by ease of cultivating, fine flavor and improved storage stability. However, the aforementioned ‘Hokuto NT-100’ has still room for improvement in coloration and keeping quality.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the foregoing, the present invention provides a new and distinct variety of mushroom characterized particularly by its cap with thick flesh and delicious-looking whitish undersurface, good qualitative character and appearance, good keeping quality and storage life and delicious tasting, which can be cultivated by gathering and repeated breeding of fungal strains having dominant traits and is exquisite in stability, reproducibility and uniformity when being produced. This novel and distinct variety of mushroom is identified as ‘Grifon 120’.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The accompanying photographic drawings illustrate the new variety, with the color being as nearly true as is possible with color illustrations of this type.

FIGS. 1(A) and 1(B) are photographs showing top and bottom of dual culture in which a pair of ‘Grifon 120’ strains of the invention are placed alongside.

FIGS. 2(A) and 2(B) are photographs showing top and bottom of dual culture in which ‘Grifon 120’ strain and parent strain ‘HOKUTO NT-100’ are placed alongside.

FIGS. 3(A) and 3(B) are photographs showing top and bottom of dual culture in which ‘Grifon 120’ strain and parent strain ‘HOKUTO MY-95’ are placed alongside.

FIGS. 4(A) and 4(B) are photographs showing top and bottom of dual culture in which ‘Grifon 120’ strain and control strain ‘MH182011’ are placed alongside.

FIG. 5 is a photograph showing the mazaedium of ‘Grifon 120’ of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a photograph showing the mazaedium of the parent strain ‘HOKUTO NT-100’.

FIG. 7 is a photograph showing the mazaedium of the parent strain ‘HOKUTO MY-95’.

FIG. 8 is a photograph showing the mazaedium of the control strain ‘MH182011’.

FIGS. 9(A) through 9(D) are photographs showing the cap gills of the strains ‘Grifon 120’ (FIG. 9(A)), ‘HOKUTO NT-100’ (FIG. 9(B)), ‘HOKUTO MY-95’ (FIG. 9(C)) and ‘MH182011’ (FIG. 9(D)).

FIG. 10 is a comparative photograph showing the strains ‘Grifon 120’, ‘HOKUTO NT-1 00’, ‘HOKUTO MY-95’ and ‘MH182011’ placed abreast in order.

FIG. 11 is a comparative photograph showing four cups of broth of strains ‘Grifon 120’ (upper left), ‘HOKUTO NT-100’ (upper right), ‘HOKUTO MY-95’ (lower left) and ‘MH182011’ (lower right).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of mushroom, Maitake named ‘Grifon 120’, characterized particularly by its cap with thick flesh and delicious-looking whitish undersurface, good qualitative character and appearance, good keeping quality and storage life and delicious tasting.

The Maitake ‘Grifon 120’ of the invention is cultivated by bringing indigenous fungal strains and commonly-available fungal strains. An example of the cultivation of the Maitake ‘Grifon 120’ will be described hereinafter. In this cultivation, the following fungal strains similar to ‘Grifon 120’ in variety were used as parent varieties.

• • 1. Fungal strain: Maitake named ‘Hokuto MY-95’ registered as a new plant variety under Reg. No. 8624 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan on Dec. 22, 2000.
  • 2. Fungal strain: Maitake named ‘Hokuto NT-100’ registered as a new plant variety under Reg. No. 14031 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan on Mar. 9, 2006. This strain has been patented under U.S. Plant Pat. No. 17,984.

The aforementioned fungal strans were all developed and duly registered as new variety of mushroom by the assignee's company in Japan.

The record of actually bringing the Grifon 120 of the invention into cultivation is described below. The cultivating record would be of help to understand the cultivation method of Grifon 120 of the invention to recreate the invention.

• • 1. (January 1993): Hokuto MY-95 was cultivated.
  • 2. (January 2002): Hokuto NT-100 was cultivated.
  • 3. (September 2002): Fungal hyphae was separated from Maitake (Grifola frondosa) gathered from the wild in Yamagata, Japan, to obtain a fungal strain named ‘MH182099’.
  • 4. (February 2004): From fungal strains obtained by crossing Hokuto MY-95 and MH182099, there was sorted out a fungal strain having a cap with whitish undersurface as intended, which was named ‘MH182188’.
  • 5. (August 2006): A quality fungal strain (Specimen Maitake #G060383) conformable to the breeding objective was obtained by crossing Hokuto NT-100 and MH182188. As the result of repeating the cultivation experiment, identification and productive stability and uniformity of the obtained Maitake #G060383 could be confirmed, thus to name the Maitake Grifon 120.
  • 6. (August 2007) An application for plant variety registration for Grifon 120 was filed with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan.

(1) Comparison of Maitake Grifon 120 with Existing Varieties in Dual Culture:

For identifying specific characteristics of the Grifon 120, dual culture using commercially available cultivars as parent controls was performed to investigate idiosyncrasy of fungi showing a reluctance to touch others.

The investigation was conducted by seeding the fungal strains of Grifon 120 and other control fungi upon a potato dextrose agar medium in such a manner that the fungal strains of Grifon 120 are confronted with the control fungi at intervals of 3 cm, cultivating the strains at 25 degrees C. for 28 days, and then, determining whether the strains show the reluctance to touch others.

The fungal strains used in the comparative experiments are as follows:

• • 1. Grifon 120: (Maitake #G060383) Strain according to the invention.
  • 2. Hokuto NT-100: Parent variety similar to Grifon 120, as described above.
  • 3. Hokuto MY-95: Similar variety to Grifon 120, as described above.
  • 4. MH182011: Common cultivar available commercially in Japan, which was used as a control strain.

In the result, the comparative experiments thus performed revealed that Grifon 120 of the invention shows the reluctance to touch all the other strains (see Table 1 and FIG. 1 to 4). Consequently, it is evident from the experiments that Grifon 120 is a new variety of Grifola frondosa.

TABLE 1
Results of Dual Culture
	Similar Variety	Commercial Strain
	NT-100	MY-95	MH082011
	Grifon 120	+	+	+
	* Strains ‘Grifon 120’ have no reluctance to touch each other.

(2) Cultural Characteristics of Grifon 120:

• • 1. Grifon 120 cultivated on the potato dextrose agar medium has the following characteristics. The mycelial color is white, shape of the surface of the colony is smooth, shape of colony edge is irregular, colony thickness is thick, and density of hyphae is sparse (see Tables 2-4).

2. The optimal temperature for hyphal growth was approximately 26 degrees C. (see Tables 2-4).

	TABLE 2
	Parent Variety	Commercial
	Characteristic Code of Field Variety	Note	Hokuto	Hokuto	Strain
Characteristics	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	(Data)	NT-100	MY-95	MH082011
Genetic Dual Culture	−								+	—	09	09	09
Reluctance-to-touch
Physiology Mycelial	20	22	24	26	28	30				04	04	05	05
Growth
Optimum Temperature
(° C.)
Growth Rate										(mm/day)	(mm/day)	(mm/day)	(mm/day)
10° C.										1.2	0.4	0.6	0.8
15° C.										1.5	1.4	1.7	1.8
20° C.										2.4	2.3	2.6	2.5
25° C.										2.7	3.1	2.9	2.9
30° C.										2.0	1.9	2.9	2.7
35° C.										0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Mycelial Color	White								Other	01	01	01	01
Shape of Surface of Colony	Smooth	Laugh							Other	01	01	01	01

	TABLE 3
	Parent Variety	Commercial
	Characteristic Code of Field Variety	Note	HOKUTO	HOKUTO	Strain
Characteristics	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	(Data)	NT-100	MY-95	MH082011
Shape of	Irregular								Regular	01	01	01	09
Colony Edge
Colony Thickness			Thin		Medium		Thick			07	05	05	03
Hypha Density			Sparse		Medium		Dense			03	03	03	03
Cultivation
Characteristics
Capsule			Little		Medium		Much			05	05	05	05
Formation
Capsule	None								◯	01	01	01	09
Coloration
Length of Time	<30	31˜40	41˜50	51˜60	61˜70	>70				03	03	03	06
until fruit body
formation at
optimal
temperature
Optimal	<15	15˜20	20˜25	>25						03	03	03	02
Development
Temperature
(° C.)
Optimal Fruit	<18	18˜21	>21							02	02	02	01
Body
Growth
Temperature
(° C.)
Budding period			Early		Normal		Late			05	05	05	05
(Natural
Cultivation)
Yield (g/bottle)	400	450	500	550	600	650	700	750	800	07	05	07	01

	TABLE 4
				Commercial
	Characteristic Code of Field Variety	Note	Parent Variety	Strain
Characteristics	01	02	03	04		01	02	03	04	(Data)	01	02	03
Morphology
Cap Size			Small		Medium		Large			07	07	05	07
Thickness			Thin		Medium		Thick			05	05	05	05
Notch	None								◯	01	01	01	09
Cross sectional shape	1	2	3							02	02	02	02
	Royal Horticultural Society:RHS Color Chart
Face color	W	G-W	D-G	B	D-B				Other	Grey-brown	Grey-brown	Grey-brown	Grey-brown
										(199a)	(199b)	(n199c)	(199c)
Annulus	1	2	3	4					Other	03	04	04	02
Hair			Few		Medium		Many			03	03	03	03
Shape of Tube Face	1	2	3	4					Other	01	01	01	01
Unevenness of cross	None								Present	01	01	01	09
sectional the tip of tube
Tube Position	1	2	3						Other	03	03	03	03
Stipe Shape	1	2	3						Other	02	02	03	01

(3) Morphological Characteristics of Grifon 120:

[Cultivation Method]

(Culture Vessel) Twenty polypropylene culture bags with a ventilating filter, which is formed in a square and has the dimensions of 8500 to 9000 cc in volume, 200×120 mm in bore diameter, and 460 mm in height, were prepared for cultivation of the fungal strains. The cultivation of the fungal strains was performed twice, using the ten culture bags each time.

(Culture Medium) There were used culture media composed of sawdust of broadleaf tree, especially beechwood, and corn bran. Each culture bag was filled with 2.5 kg of the culture medium at the mixture ratio of 1 kg of sawdust, 0.5 kg of corn bran and 2.1 kg of water (ratio by weight) and steriized by autoclaving.

(Seed Fungus) Seed fungus composed of sawdust was used. About 25 cc of seed fungus was inoculated upon each culture medium.

(Cultivation) Cultivation was performed for 40 to 70 days at a temperature of 20 to 25 degrees C., at a humidity of 60% to 70%, and at an illumination intensity of 200 to 500 lux. The time when primordium of the objective fungal strain is formed and colored was determined to be an ending time period of cultivation.

(Strain Growth) After the cultivation, the growing condition of the strains was shifted to the condition of a temperature of 15 to 20 degrees C., a humidity of 80% to 95% and an illumination intensity of 500 to 1500 lux to make mazaedia of the strains grow. The time when pores appear in the cap gill was determined to be harvesttime.

[Result of Cultivation]

The cultural experiment clarifies the differences between Grifon 120 of the invention and the control fungal strains including the most similar strains, as shown in Tables 2 to 4 above. The mazaedia of the strains are shown in FIG. 4 through FIG. 8.

(4) Morphological Characteristics of the Cap Gill of Grifon 120

Comparison was observed about a pore and gill color of Grifon 120 and similar varieties. The results are shown in the picture of the accompanying drawing.

The cap gill is white more than that of the similar species HOKUTO NT-100 similar to Grifon 120, and slightly colored. The pores in the gill were also made slow grow beyond recognition (FIG. 9).

(5) Features of the Broth Decocted from Grifon 120 (Table 5)

A comparison of broth between Grifon 120 of the invention and the similar varieties was drawn to evaluate Grifon 120. The broth of the strains in the experiment was obtained by boiling hot water containing 100 grams of the strain mazaedium over high heat for 30 seconds, further boiling the hot water for 30 seconds over gentle heat, and then bringing out the mazaedium from the hot water. The broths obtained resultantly from the comparative investigation performed for the strains were measured in concentration by comparison. (FIG. 10)

The result was that Grifon 120 was weaker in broth concentration than the commercial varieties of strains, but substantially equal to the similar variety NT-100.

TABLE 5
Comparison of absorbance of broths
Absorption wavelength 437 nm
		HOKUTO	HOKUTO
Fungal strain	Grifon 120	NT-100	MY-95	MH182011
Absorbance	0.214	0.218	0.253	0.263

(6) Eating-quality Test of Grifon 120 (Table 6)

The eating-quality of Grifon 120 of the invention was compared with Hokuto NT-100. Grifon 120 is a strain improved from the parent variety NT-100 to enhance the cultural and eating quality thereof as described above. However, new varieties obtained by breeding do not always have the same flavor and texture. The strain does not always become tasteless even though the strain is made better in morphology. Thus, a taste test of the strains was also carried out.

The resultantly obtained fungi (mushrooms) were preserved in a common environment as premises for being distributed ordinarily. That is, the mushrooms were preserved at 3 degrees C. for 5 days after harvesting, at 30 degrees C. for two days, and further 15 degrees C. for three days. Then, on the tenth day after harvesting in that manner, a taste test was carried out.

On the taste test was conducted by 64 monitors eating mushrooms, a questionnaire on the taste of the mushrooms was carried out. The results of a questionnaire are shown in Table 6.

TABLE 6
Results of Taste Test
	Daintiness	Firmness	Ranking
	A	B	C	E	G	N	E	D	E
NT-100	(ppl)	13	39	11	1	46	18	0	16	14
	(%)	20	61	17	2	72	28	0	25
Grifon 120	(ppl)	28	31	5	0	57	7	0	34	22
	(%)	44	48	8	0	89	11	0	53
[Daintiness] A: Good taste B: Fair C: Bad taste E: No opinion
[Firmness] G: Crunchy N: Soft E: No opinion
[Ranking] D: Rated as “tasty” by comparison with others E: No opinion

As will be appreciated from the results shown in Table 6, Grifon 120 of the invention is better in daintiness and firmness than the control varieties. Grifon 120 was chosen as “higher-ranking” by 53 percent of monitors while the control variety HOKUTO NT-100 was chosen by 25 percent of monitors. Thus, Grifon 120 of the invention should prove dainty to consuming public.

CONCLUSION

The new variety Grifon 120 produced by breeding according to the invention is different in morphologic attribute from the similar variety HOKUTO NT-100 and superior to the control variety MH182011 in terms of morphology, broth denseness and eating quality.

Claims

1. A new and distinct variety of mushroom, substantially as described and illustrated herein.