The "Fun Gi's" Shiitake and Pilobolus Parenting Adventure

The "Fun Gi's" Shiitake and Pilobolus Parenting Adventure

The following post details the growth and adventure of Oliver, mushroom log extraordinaire.

Oliver is a shiitake mushroom log and belongs in the following classifications:

Kingdom: Fungi

Division: Basidiomycota

Class: Agaricomycetes

Order: Agaricales

Family: Marasmiaceae

Genus: Lentinula

Species: L. edodes

We began growing Olivier on the first day of lab. We started off why soaking him in water and letting him set for two hours before putting him under the humidity tent as shown below.

April 4th, 2016:

The instructions were to water him around two or three times a day, however our group could not physically accomplish this task. We settled for watering him 2-3 times a week instead. Our lack of mushroom growth might be due to this lack of watering. The first day we saw any mushroom growth was April 13th, but by then the mushrooms were no longer small, so they probably grew in during the weekend where we could not observe their growth.

April 13th, 2016:

We had a total of 4 mushrooms grow, which we proceeded to named after each member of the group. Unfortunately, Lana the Loner mushroom cannot be seen in this picture because she is hidden in the back.

April 18th, 2016:

The 4 mushrooms continued to grow larger, but there was no new mushroom growth. We decided to harvest Kevin in order to examine him closer.

April 20th, 2016:

Here you can see that all the mushrooms left on the log. Although we didn’t have a large quantity of growth, the ones that did were high quality. They grew very big and were not soggy like some other group’s were.

Below is a closer look at the gills and stem of our mushrooms:

Gills at 40x Magnification

Stem at 40x Magnification

Pilobolus

We also grew the pilobolus mushroom. We grew it in horse dung then covered it with a cup that had a small circle to let the light in. The idea was that the mushroom would grow towards the source of light which it did.

The pilobolus mushroom belongs in the following classifications:

Kingdom: Fungi

Division: Zygomycota

Class: Mucoromycotina

Order: Mucorales

Family: Pilobolaceae

Genus: Pilobolus

Species: ?

This is the dung in which the pilobolus was grown in. As you can see, the pilobolus all grew in relatively the same direction towards the light source.

A closer look under the dissecting scope:

Although both the shitake and the pilobolus can reproduce sexually, in this case, the latter produced spores asexually. It did so by use of sporangia (the tiny black dots on the tips of the sporangiophores above).

The black “dots” seen on the inside of the cup are spores released from the sporangium.

What happened to our shiitake mushrooms in the end? Lana the Cook happened:

Aesthetically pleasing mushrooms on a brown bag (Gwen advised that Teka mushroom not be cooked, as it was pretty soggy)

Sliced mushrooms, onions, and garlic in preparation for sautéing. Unfortunately, they ended tasting steamed rather than sautéed, although they were still yummy.

The end result: a toned-down version of mushroom and buckwheat risotto. 4 stars out 5. Took forever to finish.

Pilabolous vs. Shitake:

Besides both being in the Fungi Kingdom, the two mushrooms do not share much else. Appearance-wise, they look nothing alike, and they also grow very differently from one another.

The main distinction comes from their division in the Kingdom. The shiitake mushroom is under the basidiomycetes division while the pilobolus is under the zygomycota division. We learned about both these division in class, including their characteristics and life cycles.

Shiitake mushroom life cycle:

We first start with spores. The spores develop on the hymenium which is a tissue layer that can be found on the gills, teeth, or pores which are often located beneath the cap of the mushroom. A mature mushroom can produce millions of spores in a single day. They ejected from the mushroom into the environment. When a spore lands in a suitable place, it quickly germinates, producing a single-cell filament called a hypha. It then starts to grow and extend to find a suitable mate. Spores are like egg and sperm cells in that they are haploid and need to join a mate (other hypha) to become diploid. Once the spore does find a mate to attach to the hyphae form and produce a network called the mycelium. The mycelium then has all the genetic material now to grow through the environment and produce more mushrooms. The mycelium will continue to extend and become more dense in order to get more energy and better search for food and water.

Pilobolus mushroom life cycle:

The spores of this fungi begin their life in dung, after sporangia is consumed by an unknowing herbivore. Once the sporangia is consumed, it waits until it is pooped out before the spores are able to germinate. The spores will grow its mycelium within the dung that it resides in. It is the asexual fruiting structure that we see grow on top of the excrement. This structure, the sporangiophore, is able to grow in the direction of a light source as we have observed in our own pilobolus. When there is enough pressure in the structure, the spores will be shoot out into the distance. This mechanism is to help ensure that other herbivores will eat the spores and begin the cycle anew. Having spores too close to the dung it was grown in would reduce the chances of animals eating it.

Summary table of the differences and similarities between Pilobolus and Shiitake:

Shiitake	Similarities	Pilobolus
-Grows in forest -has large underground mycelium networks. -reproduces with other mates with there hyphae -edible by humans - spores on the hymenium tissue	-Have spores -shoot spores into the environment to reproduce -Produces asexually -Have mycelium	-Grows in dung -Shoots spores further -Not edible by humans (or at least you wouldn’t want to) -Does not often sexually reproduce -Grows towards sunlight

Was this a useful assignment?
We think it was. It was cool to see in person this life cycle and be able to kind of name and attach to different mushrooms. Once we named the mushrooms we all got attached and really enjoyed seeing which ones would grow more. Seeing these mushrooms in lab and at the park made it more understandable to our group in that we could really see and get a better explanation then just reading about the lifecycles in the book. We were like the parents of these mushrooms and it was much more fun than seeing drawings of the life cycles in the book. I would say that this experiment was useful and I would recommend it to next quarters students. Its easier to understand and I felt like I learned it better instead of memorizing the cycle.