Cropping duration and non-rhizomorphic mycelial phenotype of Pleurotus djamor woody1 co-segregate in the hybrid progenies

Crop duration of the cultivated Pleurotus spp. is 45 to 50 days. P. djamor isolate woody-1 was collected as natural selection and was found to be short cropping duration variety with total cropping duration of 30 days but it is less palatable. It produced very thin, loose and non-rhizomorphic mycelia appearing light white color. Whereas, other commercial Pleurotus varieties such as P. florida and P. djamor MDU1 are long crop duration varieties and palatable producing thick, compact and rhizomorphic mycelia with bright white color. Co-segregation of non-rhizomorphic mycelial phenotype and short cropping duration trait of P. djamor woody- 1 in hybrid progenies was evaluated. Hybrid strains viz., H2W12 and H2W14 have thin, loose and non-rhizomorphic mycelium and they produced primordia in 9-10 days after spawning with total cropping duration of 29-32 days. Whereas, hybrid strain namely Pf1W2 has thick, compact and rhizomorphic mycelial phenotype and it produced primordia in 20 days after spawning with the total cropping duration of 47 days. This study indicated that genes governing short cropping duration and non-rhizomorphic mycelial pattern were tightly linked and co-segregated in the progenies. Thus, non-rhizomorphic mycelial phenotype of P. djamor woody1 can be used as a phenotypic marker for selection of hybrid cultivar having short cropping duration with other desired agronomic traits in future breeding strategy.