Involvement of endogenous glycogen in fruiting of Volvariella volvacea and Pleurotus sajor-caju

Abstract

Intracellular glycogen was extracted and assayed from the fruit bodies of Volvariella volvacea and Pleurotus sajor-caju at different developmental stages. In both mushrooms, glycogen stored in stipe during the initial primordial stage was consumed for fruiting morphogenesis while glycogen in pileus was first broken down for the differentiation and formation of lamellae but later synthesized and accumulated during hymenial cell differentiation. Glycogen was then packed into basidiospores. As glycogen level in vegetative mycelium was high when fruit bodies emerged in V. volvacea , and numerous fruit-body primordia initiated directly on the explanted stipes of P. sajor-caju containing high glycogen content, these suggested that the level of endogenous glycogen is correlated with initiation of fruit bodies in V. volvacea and P. sajor-caju as in Coprinus cinereus .