Determination of optimum conditions for the production of the mother culture of the medicinal wild mushroom, Agaricus bellanniae isolated from hot Iraqi environment (Baghdad Governorate)

The agricultural wild mushroom, Agaricus bellanniae, is one of the new fungi that have been discovered for the first time during July and August 2016 in Baghdad Governorate, Iraq. Due to the lack of research studies on this fungus globally, particularly in Iraq. This study is considered as the first research about determining the optimal conditions for the production of the fungus mother culture. A. bellanniae was done by creating a local culture medium suitable for developing wild and edible agricultural fungi. The study is concerned with two aspects, which are: isolation, purification, and diagnosis of the wild mushroom strain under the genus Agaricus to obtain a pure isolate characteristic of the fungus A. bellanniae registered in the NCBI (MF987843). The second aspect was studying the optimal conditions for preparing the mother culture from the wild mushroom. The study also examined the effect of some environmental factors on the fungus mycelium growth rates, such as the medium concentration and size, pH, and temperature. The results showed that the medium prepared from tree leaves powder achieved the best growth rates for A. bellanniae, with a growth rate of 0.77 cm day-1, followed by other media. Also, the best concentration for preparing these media was shown to be 20 g L-1. The best pH that can be adopted at the mycelium production stage for A. bellanniae, which achieved the highest growth rate, was at pH 6. The best temperature for the development of the agricultural mushroom, regardless of the media type, was at 30 °C.