Basidiocarp Production of Stropharia melanosperma (Bull.) Gillet in Nutrient Agar Media

The present work studies the fruiting body production of S. melanosperma (Bull.) Gillet using pairing test in nutrient agar media. Fourteen monokaryotic strains from single fruit body were chosen for the pairing test. Ninety-one crossings were made and fruit bodies were found in 20 crossings. Fully mature basidiocarps were produced in a ring-like fashion in one or both colonies. The patterns of the fruit body production in crossing single spore isolates are similar to those common in heterothallic tetrapolar species. The conducted work shows that S. melanosperma can serve as a model organism for the study of developmental processes in the basidiomycetes.