Effect of revulsive cultivation on the yield and quality of newly formed sclerotia in medicinal Wolfiporia cocos

Wolfiporia cocos is a well-known medicinal mushroom widely used in China, Japan and other Asiatic countries for its various therapeutic effects. 'Revulsive cultivation' is a newly developed method for promoting sclerotia growth in W. cocos field cultivation in China. In this report, we have systematically examined the effects of 'revulsive cultivation' on the yield and quality of newly formed sclerotia. The results showed that the genetic differences between the cultivated strain and the revulsive strain of T1 used in this study did not affect the formation process of new, large sclerotia in which the mycelia of the cultivated strain grew on pine logs directionally assembled on the revulsive strain. Additionally, 'revulsive cultivation', in which the cultivated strain and the revulsive strain used had the same or different genotypes, could remarkably increase the yield, lower the water content, and increase the water-soluble polysaccharide content of the newly formed sclerotia. Moreover, we observed that the changes in the values of the tested economic traits obtained from different genotype combinations through 'revulsive cultivation' were dissimilar. The correlations of these changes with the original sclerotium-forming ability of the cultivated strains and the genetic differences between the cultivated strain and the revulsive strain were not significant. These results will broaden our knowledge regarding the field cultivation of this medical fungus, stimulate new thinking on the study of sclerotium formation in some sclerotium-forming fungi, and promote further studies on the mechanism of sclerotium formation in W. cocos.