One way of protecting the biodiversity of fungi – mycodiversity– is to clone a wild specimen and get it into culture.
Over many years we have built the largest collection of Agarikon (Fomitopsis officinalis = Larificomes officinalis) strains in the world. Agarikon habitats are increasingly being lost as this mushroom dwell primarily in the old growth forests of northwest North America, in sky islands in the Alps of Austria-Slovenia-Italy and in northeastern Eurasia. As the forests are cut, unique strains of fungi, including Agarikon, are lost. Agarikon is now considered a threatened species in Europe.
By preserving as many Agarikon strains as possible, we hope to test each one for their unique properties.
The first step is to find them. Pamela Kryskow, MD and I hiked deep into an old growth forest near a lake on a remote island in British Columbia. Once we found a colony, we used a cork borer to excise a small piece of tissue and left the conks to live.
The next step was to go into the laboratory and subculture fragments of this tissue into nutrient filled petri dishes. PTC
Then, after cultures grew out, one or two are selected for further culturing into another generation of dishes.
From one of these dishes, the best-looking mycelium was then transferred into test tubes for long time storage.
With that last step, we have "banked" the strain once it grows out and then put into refrigeration for long term cold storage.
In these four videos, we show you how we do it.
For teachers, students, remote learners and the DIY people out there, I hope you find this useful.
cheers,
Paul Stamets & Pamela Kryskow, MD
on Remote Island in British Columbia
