Identification and nutritional characterization of a wild Calocybe indica strain from Anantapur forest

Knowledge pertaining to the edibility of wild mushroom species is increasing due to immense interest in foraging and traditional foods. Mushrooms are also known as "vegetable meat" and cherished for their culinary delicacies all around the world. There are 1.5 million fungi assessed and around 2000 species are edible, among these 25 species are accepted as food and used commercially. Mushroom strain was collected and isolated from wood logs near agriculture research station, Reddipalli village, Bukkarayasamudram mandal, Anantapur, Andrapradesh, India. The mushroom fruiting body was selected with a large size and wide lamellae. Mushroom was cultivated on PDA agar by explant method to obtain the lawn/mycelium. Seed was prepared by soaking and sterilizing 100gms of sorghum (Jowar) in 100ml distilled water. Morphological and growth characteristics studied by staining and microscopic observations revealed the presence of clamp connection and septa in mycelium. Nutritional evaluation was conducted by various assays revealed that the mushroom has high carbohydrate (45.25g) content followed by protein (25.67g) and has energy of 314.91 Kcal. Based on the BLAST analysis in the NCBI and phylogeny tree clearly revealed that new strain belog to the taxa is Calocybe indica so called milky mushroom.