H. S. SodhiJATINDER KAUR2017-07-052017-07-052011http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810024296Tremendous revolution in the mushroom technology in recent years with respect to types and strains of cultivated mushrooms has made Calocybe indica, a specialty mushroom, the third most popular and commercially grown mushroom in India. A lot of work has been done as far its cultivation technology is concerned but no systematic work has yet been undertaken for its genetic improvement. During present investigation nine strains of C. indica were cultivated on wheat straw using recommended technology. Strain Ci- 3 gave maximum biological efficiency of 81.28%. Basidiospores from all the nine strains were collected and subjected to germination trial on different media but no germination was observed. Improvement of high yielding strain, Ci-3 using mutagenic treatment on protoplasts was conducted. Four mutagenic treatments (one physical and three chemical) yielded 30 putative mutants. Growth studies of putative mutants indicated maximum growth rate of CMB-4 on wheat straw while CMN-11 gave maximum biomass on complete yeast extract medium. Mutant CMN-9 gave maximum endoglucanase (0.345 μg/min/ml) and xylanase (0.540 μg/min/ml) activity. Seven mutants were identified on the basis of growth and enzymes studies. A set of 14 primers were used for molecular characterization of mutants along with the parent using RAPD-PCR. Out of these only 6 primers resulted gave distinct amplification products. Six primers yielded 68 scorable bands ranging from 40bp to 280bp. Similarity coefficient of Ci-3 ranged from 0.706 for CMN-3 to 0.794 for CMU-2. Three mutants (CMU-2, CMU- 5 and CME-2) showed 4 bands each having similar relative mobility values (0.2, 0.35, 0.5, 0.65) during protein profiling using SDS-PAGE. Three bands were obtained for CMN-11, CMB-4 and Ci-3 and 2 bands for CMN-9. Only one band was obtained in case of CMN-3 with relative mobility of 0.2. Cultivation of the mutants was carried out on wheat straw following hot water treatment. Four mutants (CMN-3, CMN-9, CMN-11 and CMB-4) were found to give significantly higher yield than the parent while only three mutants (CMN-3, CMN-9 and CMN-11) gave better results on mixture of wheat straw and paddy straw and on steam sterilized wheat straw. During nutritional studies mutant CMN-9 was found to be nutritionally better with high protein, tocopherol, β- carotene and lycopene content. Postharvest treatment of mutants indicated cabinet drying as a better option in terms of colour and texture retention.ennullThesis