Yellow chanterelles are among the most popular wild edible ectomycorrhizal mushrooms worldwide. The representative European golden chanterelle, Cantharellus cibarius, has only once been reported to fruit under greenhouse conditions, due to the difficulty of establishing pure culture. Recently, we developed a new technique for establishing a pure culture of a Japanese golden chanterelle (Cantharellus anzutake), and conducted in vitro ectomycorrhizal synthesis using established strains and Pinus densiflora. Acclimated pine mycorrhizal seedlings colonized with C. anzutake in a pot system under laboratory conditions produced small but distinct basidiomata with developed basidiospores. C. anzutake mycorrhizae were established on Quercus serrata seedlings by inoculation of mycorrhizal root tips of the fungus synthesized on P. densiflora. A scaled-up C. anzutake-host system in larger pots (4 L soil volume) exhibited repeated fruiting at 20-24 °C under continuous light illumination at 150 μmol m-2 s-1 during a 2-year incubation period. Therefore, a C. anzutake cultivation trial is practical under controlled environmental conditions.
Keywords: Cantharellus; Cultivation; Edible ectomycorrhizal mushroom; Symbiosis.