Morchella: Innovative Mushrooms from Forests to Farms, Then to Our Tables

A special issue of Journal of Fungi (ISSN 2309-608X). This special issue belongs to the section "Fungi in Agriculture and Biotechnology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 1314

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Guest Editor
Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, China
Interests: germplasmic resource; morphology; taxonomy; species diversity
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Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China
Interests: whole genome; gene editing; genetics; breeding
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Sichuan Institute of Edible Fungi, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu 610000, China
Interests: microbial ecology; soil microbiome; ecophysiology; biochemistry
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Guest Editor
College of Life Sciences, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 401331, China
Interests: taxonomy; mating type; population genetics; molecular evolution
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Morels are mushroom-forming macrofungi in the Morchella genus that are highly prized for their desirable aroma, delicious taste, and tender texture. Having a long history of food and medicinal applications in both Eastern and Western cultures, morels are consumed globally, contributing to a remarkable industry. Morels were once only wild-foraged from forests, shrubs, and grasslands, but several species (e.g., Morchella importuna, M. sextelata, M. eximia, and M. rufobrunnea) have been domesticated, with it becoming feasible to cultivate them artificially in substrate beds of soil or compost in recent decades. The scale of commercialized morel cultivation is expanding very rapidly not only in China but also in other countries, including the USA, France, Turkey, and Australia. While the innovative morel industry is thriving all over the world, several problems are always hampering its sustainable development, including a lack of cultivars with improved performances; a the technologies for stable and high yields still being underdeveloped; a lack of food processing technologies to elongate the shell life being prominent; the elucidation of the chemical constitution with healthy effects; and diversified and value-added morel products.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Horticulturae.

Prof. Dr. Qi Zhao
Dr. Wei Liu
Prof. Dr. Hao Tan
Dr. Xi-Hui Du
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • wild morel germplasm
  • morphology and cell biology
  • phylogenetics
  • mating type
  • breeding report of morel cultivar
  • genome and mitogenome
  • functional gene
  • transcriptional factor
  • genetics and epigenetics
  • gene editing
  • microbial physiology and biochemistry related to morel cultivation
  • transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome
  • soil microbial ecology of morel mycosphere
  • continuous cropping obstacle
  • identification of morel pathogens
  • biocontrol of morel pathogens
  • metabolites and bioactive compounds in morel fruiting-bodies
  • processing of morel products
  • food safety
  • pesticides
  • pesticide residues
  • heavy metals

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

21 pages, 2038 KB  
Article
Improving the Yield and Quality of Morchella spp. Using Agricultural Waste
by Jiawen Wang, Weiming Cai, Qunli Jin, Lijun Fan, Zier Guo and Weilin Feng
J. Fungi 2025, 11(10), 703; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof11100703 - 28 Sep 2025
Viewed by 760
Abstract
Morchella spp. is a type of valuable and rare edible fungi cultivated in soil. Optimization of the cultivation medium for Morchella spp. is key to obtaining high-efficiency production in an ecologically friendly manner. Recently, the sustainable resource utilization of agricultural waste has gathered [...] Read more.
Morchella spp. is a type of valuable and rare edible fungi cultivated in soil. Optimization of the cultivation medium for Morchella spp. is key to obtaining high-efficiency production in an ecologically friendly manner. Recently, the sustainable resource utilization of agricultural waste has gathered attention. Specifically, reusing tomato substrate, mushroom residues, and coconut shells can lower the production costs and reduce environmental pollution, demonstrating remarkable ecological and economic benefits. To determine the soil microbial communities of Morchella spp. using different culture medias and influencing factors, this study analysed the relative abundance of bacterial and fungal communities in natural soil, soil with 5% tomato substrate, soil with 5% mushroom residues, and soil with 5% coconut shells using Illumina NovaSeq high-throughput sequencing. In addition, intergroup differences, soil physiochemical properties, and product quality were also determined. Results demonstrated that agricultural waste consisting of mushroom residues, waste tomato substrate, and coconut shells can improve the efficiency of Morchella spp. cultivation. When considering yield and quality, mushroom residue achieved the highest yield (soil nutrient enrichment), followed by tomato substrate (water holding + grass carbon nutrient). All three types of agricultural waste promoted early fruiting, significantly increased polysaccharide, crude protein, and potassium content, and lowered crude fat and fibre. In regard to soil improvement, the addition of different materials optimized the soil’s physical structure (reducing volume weight and increasing water holding capacity) and chemical properties (enrichment of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, regulating nitrogen and medium trace elements). For microbial regulation, the added materials significantly increased the abundance of beneficial bacteria (e.g., Actinomycetota, Gemmatimonadota and Devosia) and strengthened nitrogen’s fixation/nitration/decomposition functions. In the mushroom residue group, the abundance of Bacillaceae was positively related to yield. Moreover, it inhibited pathogenic fungi like Mortierella and Trichoderma, and lowered fungal diversity to decrease ecological competition. In summary, mushroom residues have nutrient releasing and microbial regulation advantages, while tomato substrate and coconut shells are new high-efficiency resources. These increase yield through the “physiochemical–microorganism” collaborative path. Future applications may include regulating the function of microorganisms and optimizing waste preprocessing technologies to achieve sustainability. Full article
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