CONSERVATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF PLEUROTUS VARIABILITY OF INDIA

The present investigation was undertaken to conserve, characterize, domesticate and commercialize the Pleurotus variability prevalent in different geographical regions of India.The species /isolates varied greatly in their cultural, nutritional, morphological and agronomical characters. All the species/isolates were tropical in nature requiring 25-30 °C for both vegetative growth and sporophore induction. Among the five species/isolates studied, the Madurai isolate showed molecular resemblance to P. floribundus, the isolate from Western Ghats showed resemblance to P. djamor var. roseus, pink isolate from Balaghat forest region of Madhya Pradesh belonged to P. djamor, the white isolate from the same region also showed 70% resemblance to P. djamor group. The Balaghat isolates showed very high contents of iron and zinc content and hence can play an important role in mitigation of malnutrition in India.