Study of alcohol dehydrogenase involved in alcohol fermentation by Basidiomycetes.

Production of alcoholic beverages using basidiomycetes has been reported. Alcoholic beverages produced by these basidiomycetes have also been reported to have various functionalities possessed by basidiomycetes. The capability of basidiomycetes to produce alcoholic beverages through fermentation may provide advantages. Alcoholic beverages with functionality derived from basidiomycetes can be given added value. However, the basidiomycetes used for the production of alcoholic beverages have no common feature of family and genus. The superior basidiomycete for producing alcoholic beverages is unknown. In this study, a wide range of basidiomycetes with ADH suitable for alcoholic fermentation were screened using various mushroom mycelia. The results indicate that basidiomycetes have both ADH involved in ethanol synthesis and decomposition, and that mushrooms with only ADH involved in ethanol production may be suitable for alcoholic beverage production. L. nuda had a high specific activity of ADH involved in ethanol synthesis, and Native-PAGE showed only the active band of ADH involved in ethanol synthesis. From the perspective of ethanol production, ADH that consume ethanol are to be avoided, thus mushrooms with ADH primarily involved in ethanol synthesis are suitable targets for alcoholic beverage production.