A challenge for mushroom growers: Daldinia eschscholtzii associated with oyster mushroom growing substrate

Abstract

Mushroom growing substrates are important for the quality, quantity and nutritional value of mushrooms produced. However, the fungal contamination in substrates is known as a major problem in mushroom cultivation. Therefore, accurate identification of contaminants may be important in order to improve mushroom cultivation to increase mushroom yield. Oyster mushroom grow bags in a mushroom farm at northern Thailand were contaminated with a Daldinia species. Contaminated oyster mushroom grow bags were brought to mycology laboratory of Center of Excellence in Fungal Research. Multi-locus phylogenies from combined LSU, ITS, RPB2 and TUB2 sequence data indicated that the contaminant Daldinia species clusters with Daldinia eschscholtzii. In this paper, D. eschscholtzii is described with a full description, color images and a phylogenetic tree of Hypoxylaceae to show the placement of the taxon. This is the first report of D. eschscholtzii associated with oyster mushroom growing substrate.