Studies on diversity and physiological characterization of morels of the western himalayan region

Abstract

The Himalayan region in India is known for its great biodiversity. The Himalayan morel (Morchella) popularly known as Guchhi is an economically important, edible and the most desirable wild mushroom, which belongs to ascomycetes. Morels have been important to mankind since a long time but yet humans could not get hold of them till date. Even though, it has been an exciting field for research, still the taxonomy of morels is poorly known. In the present study, an attempt has been made to study the diversity and taxonomic position of Morchella isolates occurring in the western Himalayan region of India. The classical and molecular diversity of thirty-two different Morchella cultures/fruiting bodies, collected from the Western Himalayan region was studied. Phylogenetic analyses based on DNA sequences could help in sorting out morel taxonomy which is essential to better define the morel diversity. In this study, sequence analyses revealed that in the Western Himalayan region of India, both yellow (M. crassipes, M. spongiola) and black morels (M. elata, M. angusticeps, and M. gigas) were prominent along with two Verpa species. Phylogenetic analyses by maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference revealed two different clades and a clear distinction between yellow and black morels. The physiology of different Morchella spp. too had been studied in different nutritional and environmental conditions. Morchella spp. exhibited different growth patterns to different nutritional and environmental conditions. Malt extract, mineral salts broth and potato dextrose broth served as the best media for the growth of Morchella spp. Carbon sources such as glucose, fructose, mannose and cellobiose were utilized well by all the Morchella spp. Organic nitrogen sources (casein, tryptone, peptone and yeast extract) were found to be good sources for growth rather than inorganic nitrogen sources.