For all you budding young mycologists... What is the difference between monokaryotic mycelium and dikaryotic mycelium? Extra credit question: Explain the sexuality of monokaryotic mycelium and dikaryotic mycelium of the genus psilocybe. ZW
Dikaryotic shrooms would have two copies of their DNA and therefore are able to exchange genetic information during their meiosis instead of just copying it like monokaryotic ones? I'm making a fairly educated guess here, it's been a few semesters since biology, and besides, I'm a lit student.
Well let's see here.. I'm not at all sure this is right.. but if anything about growing mushrooms I looked at a while ago that I can remember is right: Monokaryotic mycelium is the mycelium that grows when a single spore germinates and starts to grow mycelium. Then, when to monokaryotic strains of mycelium meet, they start to form dikaryotic mycelium, which, I'm guessing, would be a combination of the DNA of both of the spores?
Yup, yup! Monoceryotic mycelium cannot produce a fruiting body. It has only one nucleus. There are no sexes, there are compatible mating species. When two species of monoceryotic mycelium meet, and they are compatible, they combine to produce diceryotic (two nuclei) mycelium. I have seen incompatible species growing so close together, nothing but a hairs width separated them, but they did not touch! Do you know what they were saying to each other? "Fag!" hahaha:hat: ZW
Monokaryotic mycelium is mycelium that has germinated from a single spore. It has one nucleus, is fuzzy in mass and cannot fruit well. Dikaryotic mycelium forms when monokaryotic colonies meet, sharing genetic information, but retaining each nucleus. Dikaryotic mycelium is ropy and can usually fruit well. I'm not sure what you mean about the sexuality part? Edit: I posted after the answer was given, but the thing about not having sexes is implied in my post. Got any harder questions? How about something about breeding strains? You may inspire me to find something about it I've missed.
Isolating strains was probably the most interesting part of growing shrooms for me. I haven't known many people who have grown from spore, let alone know what "isolating a strain " means. How do you judge what will be a good strain? The quality of the snow white-ness? The density of the mass? i usually just picked the one I liked the most.:cheers2:
Yeah, I'm kind of the mushroom guy around here. I doubt you're gonna ask much that I don't know. It depends. If I were using agar, I'd make sure to get a fast-growing rhizomorphic sector and do a couple transfers to get it nice and healthy, then spawn to some grain. If it overtakes some contams at some point, all the better. If you're just talking about cloning, then I'd probably pick the fastest one, followed by the most picturesque. Thick stems are a plus, too. I was wanting a question about actually breeding your own substrain, though. Like how PE6 was made. You have to isolate monokaryotic mycelium from 2 different strains (like use a single-spore germination from Golden Teacher and one from Cambodian) and getting them to fuse. It doesn't always happen, but you can get some good results with some work. It takes 5-6 generations of selective breeding to stabilize, though. So yeah, got any harder questions?
"Not to go on all fours!" "Not to claw the bark of the trees" "Not to chase men" "Not to suck up drink" "Not to eat fish or flesh" "Are we not men?" , that is the Law.
