Mutation Breeding of Mushroom by Radiation

Mushrooms belonging to macrofungi have been consumed by humans for their nutritional and medicinal values for centuries throughout the world. Mushroom farming is practiced in more than 100 countries of the world, with production increasing at a rate of 7% per annum. High yield and good quality are always the principal goals for agriculturally important crops, including mushrooms. Several breeding methods are employed for strain improvement such as mass selection based on the natural chance mutation and induced mutation (mutation breeding), protoplast fusion technology, cross breeding and transgenic breeding. However, mutation breeding has shown prominent success in crop plant improvement. Though several-hundred mutant crop varieties have been developed around the world, the mutation breeding of mushrooms is limited. This review paper explores the potential application of radiation on the development of mutant varieties of mushrooms for breeding with desired traits such as better quality and productivity.