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Abstract: The cultivated mushroom Agaricus bisporus is a high-value crop cultivated globally. Consumer preference dictates that strains grown commercially are usually white. Undesirable brown discoloration of the cap is caused by mechanical damage or bacterial and/or viral infection, and results in unmarketable mushrooms. However, brown strains are grown, and the genetic locus responsible for brown pigmentation has been mapped (the PPC1 locus). Agaricus bisporus is prone to a viral disease, mushroom virus X (MVX), which results in a range of symptoms. In Ireland, MVX causes white mushrooms to produce a brown cap colour as they develop, or later during postharvest storage. It is unknown whether MVX activates damage-induced browning or genetically determined tissue browning. A joint project (between the University of Warwick, UK, and the Kinsealy Research Centre, Ireland) is focusing on identifying the genes involved in the cap-browning symptom, and the specific environmental conditions that affect the level of symptom expression. Gene expression differences between virus-infected brown and white mushrooms were characterised using suppression subtractive hybridisation. In complementary studies, a cosmid library of the A. bisporus genome is being used to fine-map PPC1.
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