Chanterelle?

[Richard Winder]

In article <950912172459_97679946 at mail04.mail.aol.com>, 
MZieg1234 at aol.com writes:
>I am trying to put Chanterelles into culture and have a question concerning
>how to identify the mycelium. I took some central tissue from a young
>Cantharellus cibarius and plated it into MEA agar containing amoxicillin.
>Bacterial growth was evident and probably due to the resident bacteria. On
>several plates a slow growing mycellium grew out from the zone of bacteria.
>It looks like many other I have in culture and not like a mold. White,
>branching, non-aerial. I transfered this non-bacterial zone to DCR media (a
>plant tissue culture media designed for conifers) as I thought it would help
>mimic in vivo conditions. Indeed growth is somewhat faster and thicker.
> Anybody have Chanterelle in culture who could suggest a way to i.d. it?
> Thanks Mike Ziegler.

Even if you do DNA tests, you are likely to get heavy bacterial contamination 
of the original material to be compared.  See:

Danell, E., Alstromm, S., and Ternstrom, A. 1993. Psuedomonas fluorescnes
in association with fruit bodies of the ectomycorrhizal mushroom
Cantharellus cibarius. Mycol. Res. (9):1148-1152.

If you are getting pretty good results with your t.c. medium, you might
try casting spores on it and isolating a pure colony for a quick DNA
comparison.  You would still have to watch out for contaminants, but
colonies germinating from typical Chanterelle-type spores should be the
least suspect.  You can stick a de-stemmed cap to a Petri dish cover with
some petroleum jelly or the like, replace the cover, and let the spores
drop for a little while.  Even if they do not grow, the dropped spores
might be a cleaner source of DNA.  Other t.c.-type medium, including liquid 
media, for Chanterelle growth are mentioned in:

Straatsma, G. and Van Griensven, J.L.D. 1986. Growth requirements of
mycelial cultures of the mycorrhizal mushroom Cantharellus cibarius.
Trans. Br. Mycol. Soc. 87 (1):135-141.

There are probably lots of other more recent references- I haven't looked
in a while.  -RSW

  RICHARD WINDER                    Title: Research Scientist
  Canadian Forest Service           Phone: (604) 363-0773
  Victoria, B.C.                    Internet: RWINDER at A1.PFC.Forestry.CA