THAKUR, MANISHAANSHU MALA2023-05-172023-05-172023-05https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810197344Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of macro-fungi commonly belonging to Basidiomycota and Ascomycota. The genus Pleurotus mushroom generally is called oyster, abalone, tree mushroom and ‘dhingri’ in India constituting about 40 species. There is limited knowledge about genus Pleurotus and the cellular processes involved in the growth of its fruiting bodies at molecular level, hence the study was conducted to assess the morphological, biochemical and molecular characterization of oyster mushroom (Pleurotus species) viz. Pleurotus ostreatus, Pleurotus florida, Pleurotus sajor-caju, Pleurotus citrinopileatus and Pleurotus djamor. At macroscopic level, P. sajorcaju and P. citrinopileatus exhibited largest pileus and longest stipe whereas P. florida and P. ostreatus showed largest basidia and basidiospore at microscopic level. P. florida was found to have the highest total fresh yield (941.35g) on a substrate of wheat straw with the longest cropping time (47 days). Maximum protein (31.64%), crude fat (3.23%), β-carotene (0.144 g/g), lycopene (0.046 g/g), and DPPH scavenging activity (85.24%) were observed in P. djamor; however maximum fibre (16.25 g/g), ash content (9.42 g/g), and total phenolic (0.073 mg/g) content were observed in P. citrinopileatus. These Pleurotus species were further analyzed at molecular level using ISSR primers. Out of 21 ISSR primers, 18 primers were successful in DNA amplification resulting in 136 amplicons, out of which 8 were monomorphic and 128 were polymorphic resulting in 93.08% polymorphism with highest polymorphic information content (PIC) value as 0.432. The ITS and RPB2 DNA barcode regions were investigated in Pleurotus species with 700 bp and 1200 bp, respectively. All of the Pleurotus species had significantly higher levels of 5.8s rDNA and ostreolysin expression in fruiting bodies than in primordia, according to the gene expression analysis. The current study reveals that molecular markers, DNA barcoding and gene expression analysis are helpful techniques for characterizing various Pleurotus species of mushrooms.EnglishThesis