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Hyphal mating- ghetto tek- anyone tried it?

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A long time ago I was a party to a convo about creating new strains of edibles via hyphal mating

Most of the discussion was way over my head and still is, but the tek was ghetto and the results potentially identifiable without much equipment, no sequencing etc

The tek was to culture two separate species on individual plates, each containing the same media

Subculture two small sections of each species about 2cm apart onto a single plate

Where they joined up, wait for sectoring to occur, and subculture each sector

Fruit, and check results for morphological or environmentally distinct growing patterns

Anyone done this? How viable a tek does it sound? How genetically distinct can the species be, for example a Pleurotus x Lion's Mane- would they be too far apart to hybridise?

It sounds like fun, and easily quantifiable for macro level results ( ie, I'm not lookin for tiny changes, measurable only by sequencing, I'm looking for variations in fruiting shape ).

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It would work in theory if they can form clamp connections, and stable ones.

clamp-connection-M-S.jpg#

I presume there are factors that control the fusion, initiation of the clamp connection and ultimate stability.

I think you could only join strains, rather than wide species matings based on compatability factors

(be happy to be proven wrong).

Otherwise we would have some funky fungi matings going on in the wild.

Not all basidomycota can form clamp connections as well.

EDIT - spore fusion gives the greatest genetic diversity within species,and I believe that clamp connections

just keep genetic diversity moving along a little to protect the hyphal mass. Probably an "insurance policy" so to speak.

Edited by waterboy
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It's my understanding that most mycelium won't form clamps with almost anything but itself.

The mycelium can recognise other mycelium chemically and the chemical zone extends further than the mycelium. It's like an invisible (invisible to normally illuminated microscopy) interference zone that arrives before the mycelium does.

Some people have experimented with snake venom and other chemical stimulants to overcome the resistance of the mycelium to form clamps with other species.

You also need a microscope or USB camera ect. to identify the clamps.

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It would work in theory if they can form clamp connections, and stable ones.

It's my understanding that most mycelium won't form clamps with almost anything but itself.

Yep, that was what I was thinking when I heard of it originally, that there had to be some mechanism of self-recognition which would prevent such inter-species hybridisation

Otherwise we would have some funky fungi matings going on in the wild.

Yep, that was what I was thinking when I heard it originally too :)

spore fusion gives the greatest genetic diversity within species,and I believe that clamp connections

just keep genetic diversity moving along a little to protect the hyphal mass. Probably an "insurance policy" so to speak.

This is the bit that has had me fascinated for weeks, I have been wondering about the logic behind this mechanism and had concluded that it was to prevent genetic degreadation over multiple clonal generations, just as we do when limiting culture generation numbers in callus culture in whole plants

What are the ramifications of the apparently standard practice of cloning from a new fruit body every few generations? Is the mechanism above sufficient to ensure that the cloned fruit will have revitalised genetic mechanism via the clamp connection hybridisations which can be superior to a parent culture which has been in storage over the longer term- and so will be less subject to senescence?

You also need a microscope or USB camera ect. to identify the clamps.

Yep, have all that. I was more interested in the possibility of the ghetto tek of spotting hybridisation via sectoring of the combined cultures

It all seemed like a pipe dream at the time, tho one which wouldn't take much proving. I prolly won't bother tho

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