A novel coconut-malt extract medium increases growth rate of morels in pure culture

• Published in: AMB Express 2021-12, Vol.11 (1), p.167-167, Article 167
• Main Authors: Evangelista, Fabiola Rodríguez, Chairez, Isaac, Sierra, Sigfrido, Leal Lara, Hermilo, Martínez-González, César Ramiro, Garín Aguilar, María Eugenia, Valencia del Toro, Gustavo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Baranyi’s model; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Coconut water; Cultivation; Culture media; Fungiculture; Growth rate; Lactose; Lag phase; Life Sciences; Malt; Media; Microbial Genetics and Genomics; Microbiology; Morchella; Original; Original Article; Pure culture; Sclerotia; Substrates
• ISSN: 2191-0855; 2191-0855
• DOI: 10.1186/s13568-021-01325-2

Morels are gourmet wild edible mushrooms that can grow on several substrates with significant growth rate variations. Such variations have hindered the development of a standardized culture media to promote morel’s sustainable production. The aim of this study is developing a novel culture media that takes advantage of coconut water as a complementary component of culture media. Coconut water has been extensively used as a growth-promoting component for plant tissue cultures; however, its application as component of fungi cultivation medium has not been fully developed. This study confirms that coconut water can be efficiently used as culture media component for morels using a kinetic characterization. Morchella sp. kinetic growth is evaluated in different cultures: agar, malt extract agar (MEA), lactose, coconut water (15%) and combinations of them. Kinetic growth parameters (lag phase, λ and maximum specific growth rate, µ max ) are estimated using primary modeling methods. Among the selected models, the best fit is achieved using Baranyi’s model. A significant increase from 15.8% to 43.4% of the µ max values was observed when culture media (agar, lactose, MEA) is supplemented with coconut water. The largest values of µ max are obtained in MEA-coconut cultures (21.13 ± 0.43–22.57 ± 0.35). Micro-sclerotia and late sclerotia are observed in all cultures containing coconut water justifying the development of a feasible and cost-effective way of culturing morels. The results demonstrate that coconut water can be used for formulation of standard media for morel cultivation leading to a cheap alternative to produce dense mycelium and promote sclerotia formation.